St. Mark's Church (Vrba)

St. Mark's Church (cerkev svetega Marka) is a small church on the outskirts of the village of Vrba in Upper Carniola in Slovenia. Despite being a modest and unprepossessing building, St. Mark's Church is widely known in Slovenia due to its appearance in O Vrba, one of the best-known sonnets of the Slovene national poet France Prešeren. Though it is only mentioned in the last verse of the sonnet, the church has come to symbolize the home and safety that one yearns for when the bitterness and disappointment of having followed one's destiny to foreign lands becomes too much to bear. In January 2011, the church was proclaimed cultural monument of national importance by the Government of Slovenia.