Rorschach sandstone contains the history of millions of years

Earth-historical memories

The Lake Constance region was once covered by a shallow sea. Comparable to the Adriatic Sea. The Swiss Appenzellerland was a coastal plain, similar to the Po Valley. Prehistoric animals roamed the subtropical riparian forests and savannahs. The water masses of the "Ur-Bregenzer-Ach" and the "Ur-Rhein" poured into the deep Molasse Sea and created two boulder-rich deltas on the coast. Between them, in a bay between Staad and St. Gallen, was an impressive sandy beach (still without holidaymakers). It was formed by the abrasion of rocks from the emerging Alps. The Alps only began to form in those long-gone times. Under the enormous thrust of the African plate, the sandstone deposits in the Lake Constance region were tilted and uplifted.

That was around 20 million years ago, long before the last ice age, long before humans existed. What remains is the stone and with it the memory of a time when the sea threw its geological waves onto our shores. Rorschach sandstone has only been quarried since the 13th century. Historic buildings such as the cathedral in Constance, parts of the Munot in Schaffhausen, the harbors in Rorschach and Lindau and many town houses in Meersburg bear witness to this. In a comparison with the times, we seem very up to date: since 1890, Bärlocher has been the same as Rorschach sandstone.