Cobblestone mosaics can be found throughout Freiburg im Breisgau. Most mosaics are embedded in the cobblestone pavement of the city centre of Freiburg.
Cobblestone mosaics can be found throughout Freiburg im Breisgau. Most mosaics are embedded in the cobblestone pavement of the city centre of Freiburg.
These mosaics are commonly attributed to the paver Alois Krems, who lived in Freiburg in 1858. His work was inspired by pavings he had seen during his time as an apprentice in southern France. In the late 19th century, major road reconstruction works took place in Freiburg, during which the Bächle were relocated from the centers to the edges of the roads. As a result, several roads in different parts of town (Wiehre, Herden, Neuburg) were repaved with cobblestone between 1901 and 1911. The new basalt pavements are streaked with veins of white marble. Furthermore, they feature the year in which they were constructed. Even though the bombing of Freiburg on 27 November 1944 destroyed about 38km of roads and pavements, many of the pavings survived and can still be admired today.
The tradition of cobblestones enjoyed a revival during the 1970s when the old city of Freiburg was turned into a pedestrian zone. For instance, the pavements of Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, Freiburg's main shopping street, was paved with red porphyry and decorated with bands of white marble and smaller cobbles found in the Rhine. Larger cobblestones from the Rhine were also used to pave the Minster square. In 2012 a path leading to the main entrance of the minster was evened out so that the handicapped can access the church more easily. [1]
At the beginning of the Habsburgerstraße a mosaic on the pavement marks the course of the 48th parallel north. [2]
The round mosaics, decorative bands and at times even the paving of whole alleys consist mostly of coloured cobblestones from the Rhine. In the past, the stones used to be extracted from the Rhine flood plains close to Breisach in periods of low flow. However, this has become more difficult nowadays since the stock has depleted. Occasionally, new cobbles are obtained from gravel pits in the Rhine basin. Furthermore, stones that were replaced by asphalt are stored and reused. Other stones like porphyry, granite, basalt and marble have been purchased in Europe in the past and are obtained from all over the world today for economic reasons. Sporadically, artificial stones are used for details.
To attain flat ellipsoidal cobbles, the paving stones are either cut by machine and have their edges smoothed in a drum mixer, or they are manually broken down and trimmed underneath to improve their stability. They are cut to be 6 to 12 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide. The depth of each stone needs to be at least 2/3 of its length. The finished cobbles are set in the ground with their flat side facing up to create a smooth surface. Bigger stones are processed by machines. Usually, the cobbles are set in a sand subfloor. Occasionally, as is the case in Kaiser-Joseph-Straße a mortar subfloor is used. The cobbles are pressed into the subfloor using a paving hammer.
In the city centre of Freiburg, round mosaics in the paving can be found almost everywhere. These mosaics often show symbols of trade or historical references to the building that lies behind it. Some of these mosaics have mere ornamental character, others display emblems, coat of arms or short brand names.
If these round mosaics take great effort to piece together they are assembled with the help of a wooden stencil in a steel ladle filled with mortar. This technique has been used in Freiburg since the 1970s. This way the mosaics can be prepared at a builder's yard and do not have to be destroyed for road work. Each of these portable mosaics weighs ca. 400 kg. Freiburg's twin cities each were given such a mosaic showing Freiburg's coat of arms. Commissioned mosaics for cities in the vicinity are also produced in Freiburg.
Freiburg im Breisgau, usually called simply Freiburg, is an independent city in the state of Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany. With a population of about 231,848, it is the fourth-largest city in that state after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of about 355,000 (2021) while the greater Freiburg metropolitan area ("Einzugsgebiet") has about 660,000 (2018).
Pavement or paving may refer to:
Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald is a Landkreis (district) in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Fifty towns and municipalities with 133 settlements lie within the district. The district itself belongs to the region of Freiburg with the region of Southern Upper Rhine.
A road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, macadam, hoggin, cobblestone and granite setts were extensively used, but these have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete laid on a compacted base course. Asphalt mixtures have been used in pavement construction since the beginning of the 20th century and are of two types: metalled (hard-surfaced) and unmetalled roads. Metalled roadways are made to sustain vehicular load and so are usually made on frequently used roads. Unmetalled roads, also known as gravel roads or dirt roads, are rough and can sustain less weight. Road surfaces are frequently marked to guide traffic.
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings.
Portuguese pavement, known in Portuguese as calçada portuguesa or simply calçada is a traditional-style pavement used for many pedestrian areas in Portugal. It consists of small flat pieces of stones arranged in a pattern or image, like a mosaic. It can also be found in Olivença and throughout former Portuguese colonies, especially in Brazil. Portuguese workers are also hired for their skill in creating these pavements in places such as Gibraltar. Being usually used in sidewalks, it is in town squares and atriums that this art finds its deepest expression.
A paver is a paving stone, tile, brick or brick-like piece of concrete commonly used as exterior flooring. They are generally placed on top of a foundation which is made of layers of compacted stone and sand. The pavers are placed in the desired pattern and the space between pavers is then filled with a polymeric sand. No actual adhesive or retaining method is used other than the weight of the paver itself except edging. Pavers can be used to make roads, driveways, patios, walkways and other outdoor platforms.
Emmendingen is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz River, 14 km (8.7 mi) north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, which is the most in the Emmendingen district.
Ehrenkirchen is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Heuweiler is a village in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg near Freiburg in southern Germany.
Haslach, incorporated into the city on 1 January 1890, is one of the Western districts of Freiburg im Breisgau. After the demerging of Weingarten the district is made up out of the boroughs 611 Haslach-Egerten, 612 Haslach-Gartenstadt, 613 Haslach-Schildacker and 614 Haslach-Haid. Its population is 20,939 (2020).
A sett, also known as a block or Belgian block, is a broadly rectangular quarried stone used in paving roads and walkways. Formerly in widespread use, particularly on steeper streets because setts provided horses' hooves with better grip than a smooth surface, they are now encountered rather as decorative stone paving in landscape architecture. Setts are often referred to as "cobblestones", although a sett is distinct from a cobblestone in that it is quarried or worked to a regular shape, whereas the latter is generally a small, naturally-rounded rock. Setts are usually made of granite.
Operation Tigerfish was the military code name in World War II for the air raid on Freiburg in the evening of 27 November 1944 by the Royal Air Force with about 2,800 dead.
The Kaiser-Joseph-Straße in Freiburg im Breisgau is a shopping street of about 900 meters, which runs through the center of Freiburg's historic downtown from north to south. It is one of the most expensive locations in Germany.
The Bertoldsbrunnen is a monument in the historic city of Freiburg im Breisgau. It is situated at the crossing of the Salz- and Bertoldsstraße with the Kaiser-Joseph-Straße. The fountain is one of the central locations of the city. A tram station with the same name is situated at the Bertoldsbrunnen where four of the five tramways of the Freiburger Verkehrs AG stop.
The Minster Square in the centre district of Freiburg, Germany, is a paved area surrounding the Freiburger Minster. The city library, the Historical Merchants' Hall, the Wentzinger House and the Korn House are on this square. The Freiburger streams run along the sides of the square.
The Salzstraße in Freiburg im Breisgau is a significant part of the Freiburg city centre pedestrian area. It runs from Bertoldsbrunnen to Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, then eastward to Oberlinden square, where a fountain of the same name is located. It is probably the location of Freiburg's oldest houses. A stream, the Freiburg Bächle, runs along the street's northern side between the tramway tracks and the pavement.
The Old City of Freiburg is part of the city and business centres of Freiburg im Breisgau and is the core of the original city. It is divided into the two districts 111 Altstadt-Mitte and 112 Altstadt-Ring. The Altstadt-Mitte district was the city's build-up area at the time of its foundation and therefore formed the old city. The district Altstadt-Ring is connected westwards to the railway line and south to the Dreisam.
The Platz der Alten Synagoge is a square in Freiburg, Germany. With a size of 130 square metres, it is the second largest square in the city after Minster Square. The square is named after the old synagogue, which was destroyed during the Kristallnacht in 1938. The synagogue had been built in 1869/1870 to the southwest of today's location of the square.
Trylinka, also known as shashka Trylins'koho, is a concrete block in the shape of a regular hexagon or occasionally a tetragon, with stone fragments embedded in its upper layer. Different stone varieties, which include basalt and porphyry, are used for the embedments depending on the local availability of the stones. Inexpensive, durable and relatively simple to build, trylinki were mass-produced and used on a large scale in the construction of roads in interwar Poland, covering an estimated 1 million square metres of surface area between 1933 and 1938. Some of those roads are in present-day Belarus and Ukraine.
Marianne Willim, Rüdiger Buhl (1999), Pflastermosaiken in Freiburg (in German), Freiburg: Promo Verlag GmbH, ISBN 3-923288-24-7
