Vincarje
Vincarje () is a settlement in the Municipality of Škofja Loka in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. Geology. There are many sinkholes in the area, including the Bear Valley Sinkhole (), Gips Cave (), Mary's Shaft (), and Migut Shaft () near the Grebenar farm. There is also a spring south of the settlement known as Blessed Spring (). Name. Vincarje was first attested in written sources in 1291 as "Weinzůrl" (and as "Weinzurl" in 1318 and "Weintzurl" in 1500). The name (now a feminine plural) is originally a masculine accusative plural of the common noun "vincar" 'day laborer in a vineyard', borrowed  from Middle High German "winzer". In the Middle Ages, the people of Vincarje worked as day laborers in vineyards belonging to the Bishops of Freising in Škofja Loka. Locally, the village is also called "Vencarje". History. The ruins of Wildenlack Castle, also known locally as Old Castle (), lie above the settlement in the neighboring village of Gabrovo. The castle was destroyed in the 1511 Idrija earthquake and never rebuilt. In 1873 public baths were established at the Anka Mansion ("vila Anka") in the settlement, featuring wooden tubs and a stove for heating the water. The Lubnik Lodge () was built before  the Second World War. It was burned during the war and rebuilt in 1953. A plaque on the lodge commemorates two hikers that were shot by German forces on Mount Lubnik in 1941. Mass graves. Vincarje is the site of two known mass graves from the period immediately after the Second World War. They are part of the mass graves associated with the nearby former Loka Castle prison. The Castle Wall 1 Mass Grave () is located in a meadow on a slope about outside the wall of Loka Castle. It contains the remains of an unknown number of Home Guard  prisoners of war and Slovene civilians, and possibly victims of other nationalities. The Bear Valley Mass Grave (), also known as the Ski Valley Mass Grave (), lies in the Bear Valley Sinkhole (), about southwest of Loka Castle and east of the castle wall. It contains the remains of 20 German prisoners of war that died or were murdered in the summer of 1945. The remains may have been exhumed.