Grimmelshofen / World Of Crystals

Calcite crystals from the black forest

The quarry of Grimmelshofen is located in the southern black forest aside of the B314 between Stühlingen and Blumberg. The quarry is working on limestone. The excavated material is used for construction issues. The mine is working on several levels. Especially the lower regions of the mine contain clefts and pockets with nice Calcite crystals. The pockets size ranges between some centimetres up to whole systems with 5m and more. Most of the caves are completely filled up with mud which helps during the excavation of Calcite specimen.

View into the quarry of Grimmelshofen.

The Calcite crystals appear in dense clusters which cover the walls of the pockets. Usually the crystal sizes ranges between 1 and 4 centimetres but there were also found crystals up to 10cm and more. Due to humus acids most of the crystals affected and got a satined surface. The interesting part is the great variety of colours in this mine. The basis is white Calcite crystals which get orange and brown tones by oxide coatings and inclusions. Especially zonal colourings the inclusions of grey clay appear in wonderful phantoms. Very esthetical are hedgehog like specimen with one side white and one side dark grey Calcite crystals. In 2004 we could find a huge pocket with crystals up to 8cm. The crystals had a window like structure and white edges – a wonderful arrangement.

The quarry at Grimmelshofen is always worth a visit. Especially after a blast, there is a good possibility to find nice Calcite crystals. Please keep in mind to ask the owner of the quarry in advance for permission to enter the mine.