Poljana () is a settlement on the left bank of the Meža River in the

Municipality of Prevalje The Municipality of Prevalje (; sl, Občina Prevalje) is a municipality in the traditional region of Carinthia in northern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Prevalje. Prevalje became a municipality in 1999. Settlements In ad ...

in the

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

region in northern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, close to the border with

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

History

Poljana was the site of the

Battle of Poljana The Battle of Poljana (Monday May 14 – Tuesday May 15, 1945) was a battle of World War II in Yugoslavia. It started outside of Poljana, near the village of Prevalje in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), and was the culmination of a series of engageme ...

in May 1945, the last significant clash of arms of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the European theater.

Mass grave

Poljana is the site of a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

from the end of the Second World War. The Poljana Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Poljana) is located southwest of the village, between the road and the Meža River. It contains the remains of an undetermined number of Croatian soldiers killed in the Battle of Poljana and possibly also civilians that were liquidated after the surrender on 15 May 1945.

Church

The local

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

is dedicated to

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. It dates to the early 14th century and is an early Gothic church preserved with very few adaptations. Its internal furnishings date to 1640. It belongs to the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Prevalje.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number 3282

References

External links

Populated places in the Municipality of Prevalje {{Prevalje-geo-stub