Northeast of Frankfurt....about a 25-minute drive, you have the city of Budingen....population of roughly 22,000 people.
If you go back about about six-hundred years....the folks there got awful defensive in nature. They built a walled city, towers, and even had an association for riflemen (which is still formed today and considered one of the oldest in the country). The Budingen folks were not to be intimidated with.
Somewhere along the way, they decided to use paving stones, and these stoned pavements are still around today.
Well....it got into the news this week that the mayor of the town wants to yank up the paving stones around the walled city area and replace it with regular old asphalt. There's been various complaints about the driving experience with the stones (it's not a friendly situation with bicycles), and some of the locals want a better surface.
Oddly enough, medieval supporters and historians have come out and voiced support to keep the paving stones. I'll admit, it's hard these days to find topics that medieval supporters will fight over and make a big fuss about, but the stone business appears to be such a topic.
Most cities have gone to concrete or asphalt, dumping the stone business. The good side of stones is that once you lay them....they might be there for a hundred years...maybe even longer.
What'll happen? It's hard to say. They actually get some folks to come out as tourists and visit the walled city (what is left of it today), and the paving stones are part of the landscape. My guess is that the medieval folks will win out in the end.
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