Russian Chapel (Vršič Pass)

The chapel, dedicated to Saint Vladimir, was built by Russian (actually members of various Slavic nations and Volga Germans that were part of the Russian Empire) prisoners of war engaged in forced labor in the area during World War I.

[1] In early 1915, the small town of Kranjska Gora suddenly became strategically important due to its proximity to the Isonzo Front.

To ensure an uninterrupted supply of materiel to the front lines, the pass was to be kept traversable year-round, and the POWs were forced to clear the road of heavy snowfall.

The prisoners built a small wooden chapel for their religious needs that was completed in 1915 or at the latest in January 1916.

There is a grave of the war prisoner Peter Polowchev next to the chapel and a pyramid-shaped tomb of unknown POWs immediately to the right of it, with the Cyrillic inscription reading "To the sons of Russia".