St. John of Nepomuk, Nepomuk

The Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk is a Baroque church in Nepomuk, West Bohemia, the birthplace of the Catholic saint John of Nepomuk. It has been protected as a cultural monument since 1963.

It stands on the site of the older church of St. John the Baptist from 1639-1660, which was built on the alleged site of the birthplace of John of Nepomuk, as the first ever shrine built in honour of this then still uncanonised martyr. After the canonization of John of Nepomuk in 1729, the size of the original church was not sufficient for the large number of pilgrims, and therefore, on the instructions of Adolf Bernard of Martinice, it was demolished and a new church was built in its place according to the plans of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer in 1734-1738. The church is not oriented, the main façade, facing south-east, has a portal from the original church and statues of John the Baptist, St Dominic and Francis of Assisi. The main altar is Neo-Renaissance with a statue of Nepomuk according to the model of Josef Max and a painting of John the Baptist by Josef Vojtěch Hellich.