Gorenja vas lies at altitude of 402 m and with its approximately 1300 inhabitants it is the central settlement of the Poljanska dolina valley. It is a cluster village, which stretches on both sides of the Poljanska Sora river. The Poljanska dolina valley widens here into a deposited plain, surrounded by hills on three sides, and the valley of the Brebovščica brook joins it from southeast.

The deposited plain of Gorenja vas is, after the Žiri plain, the widest part of the Poljanska dolina valley. Houses are situated especially on the western and northern part of the plain. Its eastern part to the Sora river, which turns in a bend from east towards the northeast direction, is a cultivable area named also Na prodi and Na polju (on the field). On the right side of the village, the plain spreads out towards the south to the terrace of Dolenja Dobrava and the Brebovščica brook, which was pushed right under the foot of hills by alluvial materials. Fallow names Blata and Vrbje give evidence that this part of the plain is wet (it is mostly already meliorated).

The deposited plain is surrounded by hills. On the northern side there is a rather steep slope of Tabor in the village itself and it raises just above the former valley road, and on the SW side it is surrounded by the Žirovski vrh ridge, and the Polhov Gradec hills at the SE side.
The name Gorenja vas derives from the village position, which lies higher than Poljane. The name Poljane originally applied for the entire extended valley, from the east part of today’s Poljane to the western part of today’s Gorenja vas. Later on this name was retained only for the outermost eastern part where the parish headquarters is, and the western parts were named regarding the original wholes: Poljane, Srednja vas, Gorenja vas, Sestranska vas and Trata, where a church was built, and a hamlet above Trata, named Lajše.
The former Gorenja vas comprised the area along the present valley road Škofja Loka – Žiri on the left bank of the Sora river. Sestranska vas spread out right along the right side of the Sora river, and Trata was mainly above the low terrace, a bit away from the right bank of the Sora river. The hamlet Lajše used to belong to Trata, and its position is on a higher terrace above it. Now Gorenja vas unites all three enumerated villages.
The road through the valley was one of connections between Trieste and Vienna, and for this reason merchants stopped in the village in inns and at blacksmiths and reharnessed their horses.
In the beginning of the previous century (22 May 1901) almost entire Gorenja vas was burnt down due to a children’s play with fire. Fire was caught on a farm at the eastern side of the village, and a strong wind caused that the village with straw roofs was quickly on fire. The villagers quickly renovated the village together.
The village went through even bigger hustle and bustle in the years between both wars when the old-Yugoslav army was building the western defence against eventual Italian attack. In the years from 1938 to 1941 several thousands of soldiers and civilians, the locals as well as from other regions of the old Yugoslavia, were building the so-called Rupnik line in Gorenja vas and surrounding villages, especially in the area of Žirovski vrh and Hlavče njive. In those years, trade was flourishing as well as bakeries, butcheries, inns, lodging houses and transport services.

Source: Matjaž Šifrar