Grillenburg Sandstone and Niederschöna Sandstone (Niederschönaer Sandstein) belong to the Elbe Sandstone

Elbe Sandstone

Elbe Sandstone describes sandstones that naturally occur in North Bohemia and those parts of Saxony within the area around Dresden. It is named after the River Elbe, which cuts through the sandstone region in a transverse valley, the Elbe Valley Zone...

s of central Europe. There used to be a number of sandstone quarries in the Tharandt Forest

Tharandt Forest

The Tharandt Forest is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of Saxony and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt, south of the town of Wilsdruff, roughly between the cities of Freiberg and Dresden...

 and its neighbourhood, not far from Höckendorf

Höckendorf

Höckendorf is a municipality in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany.- References :...

 (Paulsdorf Heath) and Ruppendorf, near Grillenburg, Niederschöna and Hetzdorf

Halsbrücke

Halsbrücke is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany....

 in the state of Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. These Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 sandstones emerged in the Cenomanian

Cenomanian

The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...

 and Turonian

Turonian

The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...

 ages. The aforementioned quarries have long since closed.

Description and use

This sandstone is both fine- and coarse-grained; its colour ranging from white to brown; in addition to quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...

 and mica

Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...

, numerous plant impressions of the genus Credneria are found in it.

According to sedimentological investigations and historical research, the material for the Golden Gate of Freiberg Cathedral

Freiberg Cathedral

The Freiberg Cathedral or Cathedral of St Mary is a Lutheran church in Freiberg, Saxony. It is called a cathedral in English even though it has never been the seat of a bishop.-History:...

 came from the "ashlar stratum" (Werksteinbank) in the area of Grillenburg. The coat of arms of the electoral Saxon milestone in Johanngeorgenstadt

Johanngeorgenstadt

Johanngeorgenstadt is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, and right on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized health resort , and calls itself Stadt des...

 was cut from Niederschöna Sandstone and the three Freiberg

Freiberg

-Places:* Freiberg, Saxony, Germany** Freiberg , Saxony, Germany** Freiberg subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp* Freiberg am Neckar, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany...

 postal milestones were made of Hetzdorf Sandstone.

See also

• List of sandstones
• Cotta Sandstone
  Cotta Sandstone
  Cotta Sandstone , is found in the Elbe Valley and in its numerous tributary valleys. Its main deposit lies in the west of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, where it runs up to the Bohemian border, ending south of Pirna...
  
  
• Posta Sandstone
  Posta Sandstone
  Posta Sandstone also called Wehlen Sandstone , only occurs on the eastern banks of the River Elbe at Alte Poste, near Herrenleithe, Wehlen, Zeichen and Posta. The thickness of the deposit is between 30 and 50 metres. It is also known as Überquader and has the smallest deposit of all the Elbe...
  
  
• Reinhardtsdorf Sandstone
  Reinhardtsdorf Sandstone
  Reinhardtsdorf Sandstone is quarried in the vicinity of Reinhardtsdorf near Pirna in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge in the German Free State of Saxony. It is the so-called main sandstone of the Elbe sandstones, and was formed in the Middle Turonian...
  
  

Sources

• W. Dienemann und O. Burre: Die nutzbaren Gesteine Deutschlands und ihre Lagerstätten mit Ausnahme der Kohlen, Erze und Salze. Enke-Verlag, Stuttgart 1929, p. 302.
• Forschungsgruppe Kursächsische Postmeilensäulen (publ.): Lexikon Kursächsische Postmeilensäulen, transpress-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00264-3