!!!Köflach

Koeflach, Styria, town in the district of Voitsberg, alt. 449 m, 
pop. 11,276, area 20.38 km%%sup 2/%, at the eastern foot of the 
Stubalpe mountain. - Office of the Gebietskrankenkasse (regional 
health insurance agency), marriage, family and life counselling 
service of the diocese of Graz-Seckau, youth and communication centre, 
clinic for rheumatic diseases run by the insurance agency for miners,  
Piber federal stud (Lippizaner), Bundesgymnasium and 
Bundesrealgymnasium secondary schools, Hoehere Lehranstalt school for 
business professions, Berufsfoerderungsinstitut (institute for 
promoting vocational training), adult education centre, town library. 
Koeflach is undergoing a change from an industrial town to a centre of 
the service sector (personal, social and public services, banks and 
insurance agencies, businesses), in 1991 48% of the 4,215 people 
employed were working in industry or trade: metal-working industry 
(production of tools and machinery), glass industry, shoe factory, 
mining company (Graz-Koeflacher Bergbau-GesmbH: opencast mining of 
sub-bituminous coal, lime and gravel works); coal mining since 1766, 
currently Koeflach has the most important sub-bituminous coal deposits 
in Austria, mined out of open pits in an extensive area. Graz 
-Koeflach railway line. - First documented mention in 1170, town 
charter in 1939; originally Gothic parish church and deanery of St. 
Magdalena, renewed in 1643-1649 by C. and D. Sciassia, wall paintings 
by J. A. von Moelk (1777); Romanesque round charnel house (war 
memorial since 1926); memorial church for Pope John XXIII in 
Pichling. H. Kloepfer museum.

!Literature
L. Weber and A. Weiss, Bergbaugeschichte und Geologie der 
oesterreichischen Braunkohlevorkommen, 1983; E. Iberer, Koeflach, 
1977, 1984; Oesterreichisches Staedtebuch, vol. VI, part 3, 
Die Staedte der Steiermark, 1990.


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