Wölkerkogel

The Wölkerkogel is a 1 700-metre peak in the Lavanttaler Alps of Styria. It stands on the Stubalm plateau near the old alpine hut, surrounded by wide meadows where Lipizzaners graze in summer. Three neighbouring summits—Brandkogel, Schwarzkogel and Rappoldkogel—frame the ridge, while the nearest base is the Salzstiegelhaus four kilometres away. The mountain is famous for its Madonna statue, a three-metre sandstone figure on a six-metre pedestal. Built in 1954 by sculptor Alfred Schlosser, it wears a golden crown made by a Seckau goldsmith and needed its own lightning conductor. Local young people contributed eighteen thousand hours of labour to haul every stone and bucket of water up the slope, and the statue was consecrated on 15 August 1954 before fifteen hundred pilgrims. Visitors reach the summit across short grass in about fifteen minutes from the alpine hut. A stone bench faces the Madonna, and the broad view takes in the Stubalm meadows and the surrounding peaks. Every year on Father’s Day and on 15 August processions climb to the figure, which locals call the Wölkartmirzl.