Grosser Speikkogel, Mountain summit in Carinthia, Austria
Grosser Speikkogel is the highest peak of the Koralpe mountain range in the Lavanttal Alps, rising to 2,140 meters. The summit commands wide views over surrounding alpine terrain and the valleys of Carinthia.
A Roman-era inscription stone found in 1962 during preparatory work for the radar station, near the Steinschneider peak west of the summit, is linked to an altar of Mars-Latobius or Jupiter and is kept by a family in St. Margarethen bei Wolfsberg. Emperor Franz I visited the summit on 28 September 1810; his brothers Johannes and Rainer erected a roughly 2 m memorial pyramid there on 17 October 1811, of which no traces remain. The summit cross was put up in 1948, renovated in 1973 with a concrete foundation and renewed in June 2014.
The summit cross was erected in 1948, renovated in 1973 with a concrete foundation and renewed in June 2014. Its crossbar reads "Bleib deiner Heimat treu!" on one side and "Kärnten frei und ungeteilt" on the other. The most-used ascent runs from the Weinebene along the North-South long-distance trail past the Grillitschhütte (1710 m) and the Koralpenhaus (1966 m).
The usual ascent starts at the Weinebene and follows the North-South long-distance trail past the Grillitschhütte (1,710 m) to the Koralpenhaus (1,966 m), about 1.3 km below the summit. The peak lies roughly 400 m west of the Styrian border and about 10 km east of Wolfsberg. A shelter for hikers is built into the radar facility.
The radar station on the summit is a Goldhaube installation of the Austrian Armed Forces. Construction began in early 1976, the antenna was mounted in 1980, and trial operation started in 1985 after the radome collapsed and damaged the antenna. Since late 2010 a RAT-31DL with a 77 m² rectangular array has rotated six times per minute, reaching 500 km.
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