Leše () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the hills southwest of

Prevalje Prevalje (; German language, German: ''Prävali'') is a town in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Prevalje. It lies in the traditional Slovenian province of Carinthia, Slovenia, Carinthia. Prevalje lies in a valley where th ...

in the

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

region in northern

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Mass graves

Leše is the site of two known

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, 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 exec ...

from the period immediately after the Second World War. They are located west of the settlement on the Prist farm, where the Leše coal mine ran under the property, causing many sinkholes in the area. They contain the remains of about 100 Austrian citizens (including ethnic Slovenes) as well as an unknown number of Slovene citizens from the

Meža The Meža (Slovene language, Slovene) or Mieß (German language, German; ) is a river in the Austrian state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia and in Slovenia, a right tributary of the Drava. It is long, of which are in Slovenia. Its catchment area ...

Valley that were murdered on 21 and 22 May 1945. The Leše 1 Mass Grave ()—also known as the Veržun Woods Mass Grave (), Janž Cave Mass Grave (), and Gustav Mine Mass Grave ()—is located south of Saint Anne's Church. The Leše 2 Mass Grave () is also known as the Veržun Woods Mass Grave (). It is located south of Saint Anne's Church.

Churches

Above the settlement to the northwest are a pair of Gothic

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

es, built side by side in the mid-15th century. One is dedicated to

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

and the other to Saint Wolfgang. Both belong to the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Prevalje.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference numbers 3281 & 3282

References

External links

Leše on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Prevalje {{Prevalje-geo-stub