A historical guide to the Saxon sandstone industry around 1900. Sandstone is a widely used building material and was often employed for paving, sculptures, and especially for facades. The cityscape is characterized by sandstone buildings, particularly in Dresden. The Frauenkirche, like many other sacred buildings, is constructed from sandstone. In Dresden, a soft clayey sandstone known as Cotta sandstone was used for decorative interiors and sculptures, while a quartzite-bound sandstone from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, still quarried today near Pirna, was used for load-bearing or otherwise stressed architectural elements. The Cotta sandstone, also referred to as medium block, can be found in both the Elbe Valley and numerous side valleys. The Cotta sandstone holds significant cultural importance, as in the past, elaborate and intricate stone carvings and richly shaped architectural decorations were often made from this natural stone and used regionally, due to its ease of shaping, making it a popular material among sculptors. For sculpting work, extremely fine-grained pieces are selected. To this day, Cotta sandstone remains a frequently used sculptor's stone. It has been used as architectural decoration in places such as the Zeughaus and Zwinger in Dresden and the Reichsgericht building in Leipzig. This is a reprint of the original edition from 1908.