Zgornja Kapla


Zgornja Kapla is a dispersed settlement in the hills north of the Drava River in the Municipality of Podvelka in Slovenia, on the border with Austria.

Name

The name Zgornja Kapla literally means 'upper Kapla', distinguishing the settlement from neighboring Spodnja Kapla. Like other settlements named Kapla and similar names, the name is derived from the Slovene common noun *kapla 'chapel', referring to a local religious structure.

Mass graves

Zgornja Kapla is the site of three known mass graves or unmarked graves associated with the Second World War. All of the victims were murdered in May 1945 by the Jože Lacko Detachment of the Partisan forces. The Zgornji Pavlič Mass Grave is located in the woods about south of the Zgornji Pavlič farm. It contains the remains of about 45 Hungarian civilians. The Pušnik Chapel-Shrine Grave is located about northeast of the Kure farm. It contains the remains of a Slovene that was murdered because he had been mobilized into the German military. The Sršen 3 Grave lies on the edge of a woods about below the abandoned farm at Zgornja Kapla no. 57 and east of the Stojan farm. It contains the remains of a person murdered on suspicion of being an informant.

Church

The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Catherine and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It is first mentioned in written documents dating to 1389. The current building dates to after 1813, when the old church burned down.