Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk at Zelena Hora

Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel designed this church in the 1720s in a manner nobody else used: baroque construction carrying Gothic vaults and pointed forms, worked into a plan of pure geometry. Everything follows the number five. Five points to the star-shaped ground plan, five chapels, five altars, five stars set in the vault, referring to the legend of five stars appearing over the water where John of Nepomuk drowned. An ambulatory cloister of alternating triangular and rounded chapels encloses the church in a ten-sided ring. The whole thing stands alone on a low hill above the town, whitewashed and strange, closer to a diagram than to a building.

What you actually see

• The star plan - the five-pointed ground plan readable in the shape of the walls and vaults.
• The interior vault - ribbed Gothic forms overhead with the five-star motif at the centre.
• The ambulatory cloister - the ten-sided arcaded ring enclosing the church and its former graveyard.
• The hill setting - the isolated white church above the pond and monastery of Zdar.

When to go

May to September, when guided entries run regularly; opening is limited outside the season and can drop to weekends only. Mornings tend to be quiet, since most visitors combine the church with the monastery below. Services and occasional concerts close the interior, so it is worth checking the day's schedule before setting out.

Honest expectations

The building is small and a visit is short, and its appeal is architectural rather than scenic, so it can underwhelm anyone not interested in the geometry. Interior access is by timed entry with commentary mostly in Czech. The approach on foot from Zdar is a dull walk through the outskirts before the hill.

Nearby

The former Cistercian monastery and its museum sit below the hill in Zdar nad Sazavou.