Gössl is a small village in the municipality of Grundlsee in Styria, Austria. Located between the lakes Grundlsee and Toplitzsee it is home to more or less 360 people. Some people maybe think of Gössl as a producer of the traditional Austrian costume. However, there is no connection between the village and the company. Right next to the village is a 180 metres high limestone rock face called “Gössler Wand”. However, there is something interesting about the small church in Gössl called Raphael-church. Normally the churches in Austria are owned by the diocese. The church in Gössl though is owned by 14 farmer’s families. This makes it to the only church in Styria that isn’t owned by the diocese. The reason for this anomaly is that the residents of Gössl wanted their own church back in 1792 as the next church was located in Bad Aussee and the journey there was, especially in winter, very demanding. When the claim was rejected they built their own church to avoid the long way to Bad Aussee.
