Kostel svatého Jana Nepomuckého (Žďár nad Sázavou)

( Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk )

The Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk (Czech: Poutní kostel svatého Jana Nepomuckého) at Zelená hora (meaning "Green Hill", German: Grünberg) is a religious building at the edge of Žďár nad Sázavou, Czech Republic, near the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. It is the final work of Jan Santini Aichel, a Bohemian architect who combined the Borrominiesque Baroque with references to Gothic elements in both construction and decoration.

In 1719, when the Roman Catholic Church declared the tongue of John of Nepomuk to be incorruptible, work started to build a church at Zelená hora, where the future saint had received his early education. It was consecrated immediately after John's beatification in 1720, although construction works lumbered on until 1727. Half a century later, after a serious fire, the shape of the roof was altered.

The church, with many furnishings designed by Santini himself, is remarkable for its...Read more

The Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk (Czech: Poutní kostel svatého Jana Nepomuckého) at Zelená hora (meaning "Green Hill", German: Grünberg) is a religious building at the edge of Žďár nad Sázavou, Czech Republic, near the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. It is the final work of Jan Santini Aichel, a Bohemian architect who combined the Borrominiesque Baroque with references to Gothic elements in both construction and decoration.

In 1719, when the Roman Catholic Church declared the tongue of John of Nepomuk to be incorruptible, work started to build a church at Zelená hora, where the future saint had received his early education. It was consecrated immediately after John's beatification in 1720, although construction works lumbered on until 1727. Half a century later, after a serious fire, the shape of the roof was altered.

The church, with many furnishings designed by Santini himself, is remarkable for its gothicizing features and complex symbolism, quite unusual for the time. In 1994, it was declared a World Heritage Site. The nomination dossier pointed out Santini's mathematical ratios in its architecture which aimed at "the creation of an independent spatial reality", with "the number 5 being dominant in the layout and proportions" of the church.

 DomePlanning and construction

The pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk near the monastery in Žďár(currently Zdar Estate with New generation museum) was built through the collaboration of Václav Vejmluva, an abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Žďár, and the famous architect Jan Santini Aichel. Vejmluva was a proven devotee of John of Nepomuk before he was beatified as well as after he was canonized.[1] The preparation of the project dates from late April to the early August 1719, and is considered a direct reaction of the abbot to the discovery of preserved tissue in the tomb of John of Nepomuk in the St. Vitus Cathedral on 15 April 1719.[2][1] The design of the building was entrusted to Jan Santini Aichel to whom abbot Vejmluva is alleged to have presented his ideas about the new sanctuary and the symbols used.[2] However, Santini dealt with the project quite individually, departing from the traditional shapes of religious buildings. He melded the abbot's idea of the church dominated by the pattern of a star into an extraordinarily impressive form which received mixed contemporary reviews. Friedrich Radnitzký, a member of the Central Committee, referred to the church as a "visually mysterious phenomenon" as late as 1886.[1] The project was finished unusually quickly (dedicated in 1722), possibly because of the strong cooperation between Vejmluva and Santini, and their shared expertise in symbology and the teaching of the Cabala.[1] The definitive shape of the building does not differ much from the first design and only a few changes were made.

 Original drawing from Santini – 18th centuryLater history

On the 17 July 1784 the roof of the church and its ambulatory caught fire.[1] Fortunately local citizens with great help of Matěj Sychra managed to save it from complete destruction.[citation needed] Permission to restore the church was given by the gubernium (administrative unit) in 1792 with the conditions that the church would no longer be a pilgrimage church, and that the cemetery of Žďár nad Sázavou would be moved to the church area.[1] Nowadays, the cemetery is no longer in use and is in fact being slowly moved out, to give the place the original look as it had in baroque times.[1] The church became a property of the state in 1953, but was returned to the Catholic Church in 2014.[1]

^ a b c d e f g h "The impulse and preparation of the church". Pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk at Zelená hora. Retrieved 1 November 2021. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference icomos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Photographies by:
Jerzy Strzelecki - CC BY-SA 3.0
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