Gallows at the Birkach Forest

The first European anthropological discovery of the fates of people in the late Middle Ages.

Between the villages of Unterzeiring and Katzling, on a Quaternary low terrace on the right bank of the Pöls River, there are the well-preserved two pillars of the execution site in the former Birkach Forest, as well as the associated Poor Sinner's Chapel. Now, on the one hand, the first archaeological findings and finds have vividly documented the actual use of the execution site, and on the other hand, historical research has brought to light the first sources on the handling of death sentences at the Unterzeiring execution site: In the Styrian Provincial Archives in Graz there is a Reifenstein district description from the year 1843, which was written at a time when the old criminal records were obviously still accessible, because there we read: "In the old deposited criminal records also the execution executions for sorcery still appear, especially the last one in the year 1660". - It will be the task of archaeological research to prove these witch burnings at the Unterzeiring gallows also by corresponding burn layers.