Hierarch of the Serbian Church celebrated a Memorial Service at the Russian Chapel near the Vršič pass

DECR Communication service, 01.08.2026.

On July 25, 2025, commemorative events were held at the Alpine Vršič Pass in Slovenia at the Chapel of St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, built in memory of Russian prisoners of war who tragically died in an avalanche in 1916.

This year, the ceremony was dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the chapel, as well as the 30th anniversary of the Slovenia-Russia Friendship Society, which traditionally organizes the annual commemoration at the Vršič Pass.

The wooden Orthodox chapel at the high-altitude Vršič Pass in the Julian Alps is dedicated to St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles. It was built in 1916 by Russian prisoners of war in memory of their comrades who died in a snow avalanche while building a road across the Alps. During the First World War, at least 10,000 compatriots died in prisoner-of-war camps of Austria-Hungary on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Since the early 1990s, solemn ceremonies in memory of the deceased have been held every year near the Russian Chapel on the last weekend of July. In 1995, the building was granted the status of a state-protected cultural monument, and ten years later the surrounding area was transformed into a memorial park.

A memorial litia was celebrated in the open air by the walls of the Vladimir Chapel by the Administrator of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolitanate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Kirill of Buenos Aires, South and Central America.

More than 450 people took part in the commemorative event. Among them were Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Slovenia T.R. Eyvazov, Mayor of Ljubljana Z. Janković, Mayor of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora H. Zupan, staff of the Russian Embassy, Chairman of the Slovenia-Russia Friendship Society S. Gerzhina, prominent politicians, heads of Slovenian veterans’ organizations, public figures, compatriots and local residents. The ceremony was also attended by S.E. Cheremin, Minister of the Government of Moscow and Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations of the Russian capital, reports the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

In a solemn ceremony, T.R. Eyvazov and S.E. Cheremin laid a wreath at the mass grave of Russian prisoners of war near the Russian Chapel.

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Hierarch of the Serbian Church celebrated a Memorial Service at the Russian Chapel near the Vršič pass

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons