Maria Lankowitz is a small market township near Köflach

Köflach

Köflach is a small city in the district of Voitsberg in Styria, Austria, at the foot of the Stubalpe mountain. The town has a population of roughly 10,000 and contains a federal stud in the village of Piber that supplies the Lipizzaner horses to the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna...

 in the district of Voitsberg

Voitsberg (district)

Bezirk Voitsberg is a district of the state of Styria in Austria.-Municipalities:Suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are indicated in small characters.* Bärnbach**Hochtregist* Edelschrott**Kreuzberg* Gallmannsegg**Hadergasse...

 in Styria, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, at the foot of the Stubalpe mountain. Maria Lankowitz was first mentioned in records in 1415. The 15th century church is the most important Styrian place of pilgrimage after Mariazell

Mariazell

Mariazell is a small city in Austria, in Styria, well known for winter sports, 143 km N. of Graz. It is picturesquely situated in the valley of the Salza, amid the north Styrian Alps....

. On the mountain pastures, where the famous Lipizzaner horses to the famous Spanish Riding School

Spanish Riding School

The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses, which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 graze in summer, there are ski pistes and cross-country ski runs. The former coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

caverns have been turned into a swimming lake and a golf course.