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What
is a dry stone wall?
Dry stone walls are built by natural stones without mortars. For
centuries used in civil engineering the traditional technique
is still to be found in all continents. Houses, stables and terraces
were built by dry stone walls, as well as defined culture country
and pastures. Country and settlements were protected with dry
stone walls against floods, avalanches and erosion. Still today
the natural stone buildings shape the culture landscapes and stabilize
the ecological equilibrium of innumerable regions around the globe.
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The traditional handicraft has been developed beside the anonymous
buildings of the rural culture in the course of the industrial
revolution to an engineer-moderate building industry. Arising
new building materials after that Second World War displaced the
labor intensive handicraft of the dry stone waller increasingly.
Therefore the skill relating to handcrafts and the technical know-how
were more and more lost.
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In principle in connection with the culture landscapes one differentiates
between free standing walls in the pastures and the retaining walls
. With the retaining walls different types are built depending upon
requirements and load. In a wide range of types, historical buildings
were provided by the dry building method:
different houses, stores, shelters as well as bridges, seam paths, passport
roads and buildings of protection.
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The tradition of the treatment of stones goes back into the antiken
advanced cultures to the building and art of the Egyptians and the Greeks.
The transitions from the building industry to the work of art are likewise
flowing, like the demarcation between anonymous buildings of dry stone
walls and engineer-moderate brick-work. Therefore it is not always simply
borders to pull between dry stone waller, engineer and artist. Although
the main tool of the waller is still the hammer, today technical aids
and machines are used.
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Depending upon requirements of the client thera are different techniques
and tools in the realisation of a dry stone wall building. The art of
the dry stone walling exists in skillful selecting and fitting of the
available stones. Therefore an experienced eye, a creative imaginative
power and the experience with different rocks finally plays an important
role.
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 In
the horticulture the significance of the dry stone walls increased in
the last years owing to their aesthetic and ecological characteristics.
Stairs and retaining walls, as well as natural paving stones are in
the meantime popular formative elements in the garden, which lent again
lift to the old stone handicraft. The flowing transition of the drying
wall handicraft to the stone-cutter opens the artistic and creative
liberties of the waller. A goal remains to unite the ecological and
aesthetic requirements in the horticulture.
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