Tschernitz-Haus Building

Klagenfurt is a city built in stone. And two types of stones, in particular, can be found throughout the city: Pörtschach marble, pale, almost white, and a dark, deep-green stone — the Kreuzbergl slate, from which, for example, the Dragon Fountain — the Lindwurm — is made. Pörtschach marble can be found everywhere: in the kerbs of the pavements, as the boundary between the road and the pavement. It is a stone typical of Klagenfurt, also chosen to evoke that Italian character, that atmosphere one experiences in the great Italian cities — Florence, for example. This same marble can also be found in Neuer Platz, in the Tschernitz-Haus. The building’s portal is made of this white marble, marked by splendid veins: sometimes black, sometimes pinkish. It is a stone found everywhere in the city, quarried locally, and its history goes back a long way, reaching back to Roman times. Even then, this marble was already being used in Carinthia. Evidence of this can still be found today: at Gummern, in the Krastal valley, north-west of Villach. Or in eastern Carinthia, in the Lavant valley, in the Spitzelofen quarry, where an entire Roman quarry has been uncovered. It is an ancient, deeply rooted tradition. The architect of the regional museum in Klagenfurt also chose this very marble for the staircase. When you enter the museum and go up to the first or second floor, you see it clearly: that unmistakable veining, that marbled surface from which the stone takes its name.