The Legend of the Schöckl Witch

To the northwest of Riegersburg, lies the local mountain of Graz, the Schöckl. The high plateau of the mountain is clearly visible.

The Schöckl Witch, an ugly, scrawny woman with dishevelled hair, brewed severe storms in the weather holes of the Schöckl. She smeared a horrible, grey ointment under her armpits, so that she could fly through the air. With this, she spread the storms, hail, and thunder over Graz and the surrounding area, destroying the crops. To protect themselves, the farmers would throw their pitchforks and brooms out of the door, swearing loudly at the first signs of bad weather. This was intended to scare and drive away the dreadful Schöckl Witch. Even today, if someone has dishevelled hair, people say that they look like the “Schöckl Witch”.

The Legend of the Witches’ Gathering at Stradnerkogel

To the left of the two mountains (Gleichenbergerkogel peaks) located to the southwest of Riegersburg castle, lies a broad ridge, called Stradnerkogel.

On one beautiful full moon night, the witches from the entire region celebrated a wild and noisy party with the devil, on this ridge. Early in the morning, the witches made a bet with the devil that he would not succeed in building a mighty castle on the southern plateau of the Stradnerkogel, by midday. The devil didn’t need to be told twice and set to work immediately. Suddenly there was a loud ringing of bells. The devil froze. He hadn’t realised that St. Anne’s Day was being celebrated that day and that the church bells would hardly stop their terrible noise for the whole day. When the devil realised that the witches were well aware of St. Anne’s Day and wanted to play a trick on him, he became so angry that he destroyed his work and raced southwards into hell, screaming and shouting. In the process, he swept away all the trees and stones in his path.

This is how a deep trench (called Höllischgraben) on the southern part of the Stradnerkogel, is said to have been created.