Vršič Pass

Vršič is a road built of suffering. In the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian army urgently needed a passage over the mountains to supply the Isonzo Front — and had it built by Russian prisoners of war. In inhuman conditions, thousands of prisoners carved 50 hairpins into the rock; in March 1916, an avalanche off Mojstrovka buried hundreds of men. Their surviving comrades raised a wooden Russian Chapel with two onion-domed towers beside the road — today one of the most moving memorials in the Alps, and the northern approach officially bears the name Russian Road.

Above the pass stands an older story still: in the north wall of Prisojnik, nature has carved the stone face of the Heathen Maiden. Legend tells she was a prophetess of a race of benevolent giantesses who foretold that the newborn Goldhorn — the white chamois of Triglav — would die by a hunter’s bullet. For betraying fate, the other heathen women turned her to stone in the wall, from which she now gazes eternally into the valley.

Today Vršič is a pilgrimage for bikers, cyclists and mountaineers: 50 numbered hairpins, a mountain hut on the windy summit and views of Prisojnik, Mojstrovka and the Trenta valley where the Soča is born. The pass is 50 minutes from Bled — but plan a full day, because nobody returns straight home from Vršič.