Sights
The Stone Garden in Gommern
The Stone garden in Gommern was opened in April of 1995. A small group of scientists (Gommern Rock Garden Association) set themselves the target of making the people in Gommern more aware of the wealth, the colour and the durability of the natural stone. 
It was fitting to establish
such a collection in Gommern
as it has a long mining -
geological tradition. The
mining of the Gommern
quartzite can be dated as far
back as the 11th/12th century
(the village church in Leitzkau
1114 was built from Gommern
stone). The lake„Kulk“ on
whose banks the stone garden was sited, is itself the remains of a quartzite quarry. On the east side of the lake there is a shifting sand dune, the Fuchsberg. This has been under protection as a nature reserve since 1936. Theses sites are of no surprise, after all, Gommern was the head office of the East German mineral oil natural gas explorations and extraction for over 40 years.
The Association makes no claim of ownership on the establishment or the expansion of the collection. It is also not to be seen purely as a scientific project. The association would rather that the collection be evaluated on the basis of its broad information and display value. This basic principle still stands today, although the collection has now expanded to more than 212 examples.
In the beginning, the association was only able to display stones from well known stone categories; however the collection will soon expand to display impressive rocks which are typical of the mid-German mountain ranges and the Alps and will go on to include northern debris/deposits which are particular to the East German brown coal opencast mining.
Meanwhile ,in so far as it is financially possible, the collection will extend further into
The stone garden in Gommern has become the largest collection of stones in
