Franja
Het partizanenziekenhuis Franja was een van de meest indrukwekkende dingen die we onderweg gezien hebben.
The Franja Partisan Hospital
"The cabin was completed on 23 December 1943 so that the first group of wounded partisans celebrated the Christmas evening in a new dwelling. How surprised were they to see a large tiled stove in the middle of the room, a white wall covered with paper, bunk beds with straw mattresses, warm blankets and white sheets. Delicious smells wafting from behind the door over which hung photos of Tito and Stalin reminded of home and festive dishes."
These sentences written by one of the hospital's patients express profound gratitude of all former patients to all those who built the hospital, worked there and took care of it. During WWII special care was given to the treatment of wounded partisans. To this end, a field hospital was established in a narrow Pasice gorge near Cerkno, consisting of twelve cabins and a power station built on hardly accessible steep rocky and icy slopes. The hospital was named after the physician Dr. Franja Bojc Bidovec, who managed it. Hidden close to the settlements and surrounded by German strongholds, the hospital was attacked twice, but it was never destroyed and never disclosed. It was not only a natural fortress among the rocks, but also a fortress of humanity and patriotism of all local people. As one of the best equipped medical facilities of those times, the hospital performed the most difficult surgeries and treated altogether more than 900 injured resistance fighters and Allied soldiers. It closed on 5 May 1945. Since 1963 the hospital has been under the auspices of the Idrija Municipal Museum, which takes care of it. As an exceptional testimony of the humanity in those difficult times, the Franja Partisan Hospital is nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
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