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Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora
Site number:
690
Type of site: Cultural
Date: 18th-century
Date of Inscription: 1992
Location: Europe, Czech Republic, South Moravian Region
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Description: Standing at Zelena Hora (close to Zdar nad Sazavou in Moravia) this pilgrimage church was built in honour of St John of Nepomuk. Built in early 18th century on a star-shaped plan, it is architect’s Jan Blazej Santini’s most unusual work, with its exceedingly innovative style falling between neo-Gothic and Baroque. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available.
  The Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora (Gruneberg) in Žďár nad Sázavou, near the border between Bohemia and Moravia, is the final masterpiece of Jan Santini Aichel, a maverick Czech 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 in Zelena 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 unique for the time. In 1993, it was declared a World Heritage Site. The nomination dossier pointed out to Santini's ratios aimed at "the creation of an independent spatial reality", with "the number 5 being dominant in the layout and proportions" of the church. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/690
Reference: 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page.
 
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