Russian Chapel, Vršič

The Russian Chapel at the Vršič Pass (Ruska kapela na Vršiču) is a Russian Orthodox memorial chapel located on the Vršič Pass road in northwestern Slovenia. It was built by Russian prisoners of war engaged in forced labor in the area during World War I.

History
In early 1915, the small town of Kranjska Gora suddenly became strategically important due to its proximity to the Isonzo Front. To facilitate access from the town to the front, the Austro-Hungarian authorities ordered the construction of a military road across Vršič, a 1,611 m pass between the Sava and Soča valleys, to be built by Russian POWs.

The road was begun in May 1915, and was completed by the end of the year. To ensure an uninterrupted supply of materiel to the front lines, the pass was to be kept traversable year-round, and the POWs were made to clear the road of heavy snowfall. On 8 or 12 March 1916 (sources vary), an avalanche buried a POW work camp, killing approximately 300 prisoners and about 10 guards. Exact casualty figures were never determined, either for the victims of the avalanche of for those of the brutal overwork and appalling conditions.

The Russian camp was located roughly halfway up the slope of Vršic. Between 1916 and 1917, the remaining prisoners built a small wooden memorial chapel. The building is of typical Russian design, with two small towers on either side of the nave, and is surrounded by prisoners' graves and a pyramid-shaped memorial marker to the immediate right of the chapel.

The site was renovated in 2005, at a cost of €90,000, and serves as both a war memorial and a symbolic link between Slovenia and Russia. The pass road was renamed Ruska cesta ('Russian Road') in July 2006.