Hügelgräberfeld Winkling

The Hügelgräberfeld Winkling lies in the Winkelholz woodland near Kronstorf in Upper Austria. The site contains about one hundred Bronze-Age burial mounds scattered through dense forest. A loop of the River Enns runs past the wood, keeping the mounds within five hundred to eleven hundred metres of the water. The mounds date to the Middle Bronze Age. Beneath the turf, each has a ring of stacked stones up to eight metres wide. Inside, stones and earth form a low cap over the burial pit, where the dead were laid in a crouched position on a pavement of river stones. The most notable finds came from Tumulus 1: two four-spoked bronze wheels and three long pins. The wheels once served as pendants or amulets, and the pins measure up to twenty-six centimetres in length. A forest track passes the site and carries an information board. Visitors walk among the grassy mounds, reading the stones and earth that have preserved the graves for three thousand years. The quiet woodland and the nearby river create a calm setting for these ancient remains.