Every so often during a late night read or random moment of research, a story will get my attention. One such story is that of a location known as Wolfsegg. This area of Austria is exactly what you would expect of a country side in Austria.
Farms, Fields, forests, hills. However, there is more to this peaceful country side than meets the eye. From strange creatures, to Horrifying Caves, and even out of place Artifacts, there was far more than I was prepared for.
Our first account comes from Canadian soldiers stationed in the area in 1987. The group of soldiers were turning in for the night. The troop of soldiers were staying at a US base training area near the town of Wolfsegg. A group of the soldiers decided to camp in a farm field for the evening, while one soldier decided to sleep in the back of the troop transport truck.
At some point during the night. the young soldier awoke to the sound of scratching coming from outside of the vehicle. The soldier leaned up, peering out of the front window, from the back of the transport. To his horror a large canine head appeared over the hood. The large head with pointed ears turned as it noticed him. The soldier tells of the eyes more than anything. The glowing red eyes are what scared him the most. the creature had to have been six or seven feet tall to see over the hood of the Truck.
The creature eventually broke eye contact and thankfully left the area. Upon searching the next morning, the soldiers were able to find large paw prints around the transport. However, no other trace of the beast was discovered.
*This is a far cry from it, but this kind of reminds me of the setting for one of my favorite werewolf movies. Dog Soldiers(2002) Same setting but way more gruesome. I can not recommend this movie enough, okay back to the stories.
Our next encounter shifts a little away from the "Phantom Wolf" as it is now known. Near the towns large forest there is a deep and ominous cave
The Wolfsegg Hole as the townsfolk call it is a nearly straight down sink hole cave, tucked away in the forest. Locals reports sounds of breathing, grunting, and howling emanate from the cave. Most of the townsfolk refuse to go near the caves opening. The cave itself, at least 35 meters deep, is largely unexplored. An expedition in 1920 went in to try and explore the depths of the Sink Hole.
The expedition finally reached the bottom of the opening and discovered horizontal tunnels around the area. This was their goal. However, the tunnels were to far down to allow entrance by any known animal through the opening above. Also, animal bones were found in the area, but were expected to have been there for many years.
To this day the rest of the cave remains unexplored. The area is known for iron mines in its history so there are other openings and mine shafts dotting the country side. It is unknown if any connect to the Wolfsegg hole. It is possible that these caves and shafts could provide a home for a pack of large wolves. Yet, the sheer size, as well as red glowing eyes, certainly set the previously mentioned beast aside.
Wolfsegg castle is our next stop. The 13th century castle constructed by a wealthy landowner still stands above the landscape today. It has had multiple uses over its lifetime, from family castle, to troop emplacement, to tourist attraction. The point of our story here are the legends of a lady in white which is said the roam the hallways of the castle and its grounds.
The main theory is that the spirit is the murdered wife of the castle owner, who put her to death upon finding she had been unfaithful. This story however, goes awry when history tells up the wife outlived her husband. so it is unclear who is roaming the grounds. It is possible one could group this into the "Lady in white" phenomena from around the world. She could be a banshee, a lost soul, or simply a member of the family who refuses to leave her home.
The sheer amount of random happenings in the area continues. The Wolfsegg iron is a super intriguing little breadcrumb that popped up. This piece of Iron was discovered in 1885 in a foundry in Austria. The worker had broken open a chunk of lignite,
The extremely strange chunk of iron was allegedly mined form a 20 million year old coal seam in the area around Wolfsegg. The stone was first expected by scientists to be an ancient meteorite and that remained the prevailing theory for years.
However, in 1966 the Vienna Naturhistorisches Museum used electron beam analysis on the item. They found no traces of nickel, chromium or cobalt in the iron, suggesting that it was not of meteoric origin. The final scientific conclusion that it was mistakenly identified at the earlier time, and was actually a piece of cast iron, used as a ballast in early mining equipment. Not everyone accepts this theory, but unless someone is willing to do a more modern study, we will never really know where this chunk of iron truly came from.
This one small town is an incredible example of the amount of strangeness in our world. If we just dig a little beneath the surface, maybe not 35 meters down, but just a little, it is surprising what can be uncovered. We just have to start looking.