Slovenské travertíny ako ušľachtilé kamene – stručná geologická charakteristika, história ťažby a využitia

Twelve Slovak travertines were used for decorative purposes among thousands freshwater limestones, mainly in the 20th century. The history of block extraction and use of the travertines was reconstructed based on written sources, historical and contemporary topographic maps, geological maps, aerial and LiDAR images, field research of travertine facies, forms in old quarries and on buildings. Unmatched the most important Spiš travertine with 3/5 (673) of all found uses (1098) is a high-quality decorative stone, which is characterized by strength, fine layers and almost white color in outdoor conditions. The travertine has been quarried for 8 centuries from Dreveník hill, the largest travertine mound in Slovakia of the Pliocene age, which is located south of the Spiš Castle. The high production was from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. Spiš travertine as a national stone has become an integral part of Slovak modern architecture in over 80 cities and towns. The second in the ranking with 1/5 realizations on public buildings (210) is the gray-beige fine-layered Ružbachy travertine, which was used mainly for large-scale sculptures from the 1960s to 1980s. The attractive orange Bešeňová travertine and similar Vrbie travertine (72) were widely exported abroad in the 1930s. They were extracted from 1928 to the beginning of the 1960s. The even more attractive Levice golden onyx (47) has no analogue in Europe. The onyx marble has been used for smaller highly decorative plastic products and interior cladding since the 1920s. Yellow Levice travertine (23) from the same area was uses for outdoor cladding. In other places there are beige Ludrová travertine (21), which replaced Ružbachy travertine for cladding in 1970s and 1980s, Gánovce travertine (18), which was quickly exhausted after intensive extraction in the 2nd half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and Lúčky travertine (16), which began to be mined only in the 1920s. Ružomberok travertine of whitish color (9) was extracted in the 19th and in the 1st half of the 20th century. Only a few realizations have been identified for the Klíž travertine, an unusual Miocene fresh water limestone with brown shades, and the Hradište travertine, a rather solid tufa stone. Slovak travertines were widely used in the Czech Republic from 1928 to 1939 and from 1965 to 1976. Mainly Spiš travertine (722), less Ružbachy travertine (139) and Gánovce travertine (60) was utilized for private tombstones, with a peak from the 1920s to 1940s. At present, the Spiš travertine is used for buildings, rarely in the Czech Republic.