The Zigöllerkögel, a 680 meter high elevation, located directly on the outskirts of Köflach, is home to around 70 caves, which are mainly located on the south-west and west sides of the Kogel. These legendary caves are partly ancient settlement and cult areas. Two of them, the “Ochsenloch” and the so-called “Heidentempel” with a total length of more than 100 meters are among the most important cave sites in Styria.
On the initiative of the historian and folklorist Ernst Lasnik together with the municipality of Köflach, the lecture “The Zigöllerkogel and its caves” will be held on Wednesday, April 19, starting at 7 p.m. in the Volkshaus Köflach. The local speleologist Anton Schildberger from the Association of Austrian Speleologists and the archaeologist Daniel Modl will give the lecture.
Million year old caves
A lot of interesting facts about the geological development of our region await the visitors of the lecture. “The caves in the Zigöllerkogel are witnesses to the development of the landscape. Today they are at different altitudes, but they were always created at the height of the former valley levels (groundwater levels note),” says Schildberger. “Over millions of years, the mountains have risen and the valleys have cut further into them.” According to scientific research, the top and oldest caves of the Zigöllerkogel would be a few million years old, while the deepest caves, including the Fleischhacker cave, are still being formed by water in our time. So this cave now serves as a naturally created overflow channel.
Does a lindworm live in the Zigöllerkogel?
The flanks of the Gradnerbach valley and thus also the water of the Fleischhacker cave were included in the water protection area of the Stadtwerke Köflach in the 1950s. Legends report that there is a large lake in the Zigöllerkogel, that a “lindworm” lives there and guards a “golden cone”. The Fleischhacker Cave has always been suspected as the entrance to this lake. In 2021, on the initiative of Anton Schildberger, a team of speleologists entered the cave, precisely measured and documented it. There were some special surprises, for example that the butcher’s cave is much larger than previously thought.