Luminous pit field
After the Nürburg, Eltz Castle, the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz and the Kottenheimer Winfeld, the light artist Peter Baur now illuminates the Mayerner Grubenfeld . In addition to old cranes, basalt quarry walls and the silver lake, a large number of stone works of art from the Lapidea site are illuminated.
The "Mayener Grubenfeld" nature reserve leads into a bizarre mining landscape with traces of mining from different eras.
Everything was easier with machines: Electric cranes remained behind as a silent view over the mine field, witnesses to a bygone time in the mine field. High basalt walls are reclaimed by nature.
A signposted circular route with many explanations leads past the Roman quarry to the Silbersee.
It was still a lukewarm one Saturday night, as they sometimes happen at the beginning of September, as we us opened around 10 p.m. to let us be carried away into an enchanted world.
We were immediately fascinated by the play of color and shadow and the calm that emanated from the nocturnal mine field. It was amazing that although there were many visitors on the site, calm and enchantment greeted us.
After about 300m slightly downhill on a somewhat stony path, a red glowing basalt wall shone towards us. The light changed - as with all objects - from blood red to white to blue and then to a rich green and reddish again.
Everyone made sure that they kept their distance from the neighbors due to the corona virus. it was very pleasant to experience all this.
You always believed in one to come to another world. Even if you stopped and looked around in the changing light, suddenly everything around you was different.
After a small right-hand bend, a bit downhill, a wondrous spectacle of colors, water and the basalt walls presented itself. That had to be the Silbersee, lying so calmly in front of us.
We let the play of colors affect us for a long time and discovered different moods again and again.
Further up then the view down to the lake - again a completely different picture
No. that wasn't the moon, but a simple LED spotlight that enchanted the forest and the lake,
One might think that the gollums, fairies and goblins peeped out from behind the stones and bushes to see what strange games the big people were playing with their homeland.
Out of the woods, an old abandoned crane stood over us. With which they once probably extracted the basalt from the depths.
We took a closer look and felt the flair of the old steel construction. It stood there as if it had always been here, fitting into this enchanted landscape in its own way.
And what colors do to us can be seen in the following two pictures... suddenly completely different things appear to come to the fore and others somehow become invisible.
Of course I also wanted to dive into the night blue and joined the foot of the crane.
Visitors can marvel at art made from volcanic stone in the "Area Lapidea" sculpture park. International artists have created stone sculptures during various symposiums, which convey a very special flair in the mine field.
Leaves just let the pictures work on you. What moves the individual artists to shape the stone in this way was not revealed to us that evening.
The way back led over a hidden old stone staircase, which in the light nestled so wonderfully in the slope. Somehow she got curious again about the outside world with its cold neon lights and the noise of the city.
It was an exciting journey into the world of stones, lakes and colorful light. I think we'll look at the mining area again when the sun is shining and I'm sure some of the little spots that are wrapped in a mysterious darkness will appear completely different, somehow disenchanted. but we think that the mining area and the silver lake also have their charm in the sunlight.
Maybe it's because this place has been worked over many centuries or even millennia by people and so many generations have sunk their sweat in it.
And if you look over the old quarry site in the evening you can see them: thousands and thousands of bats that live in the inaccessible quarries of the "Mayener Grubenfeld" nature reserve.
"Shaft 700", a former mine entrance, has been opened to visitors and, with a bit of luck, allows a glimpse of the bats.