Poutní kostel sv. Jana Nepomuckého na Zelené hoře

The church stands on the Zelena hora ridge above Zdar nad Sazavou, its ground plan and surrounding cloister traced as a five-pointed and ten-pointed star, a geometry inspired by the legend of five stars that appeared over the Vltava where John of Nepomuk drowned. Architect Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel designed it for the Cistercian abbot Vaclav Vejmluva, and it was built between 1719 and 1722 in the Baroque Gothic style he pioneered, blending Gothic vaulting with Baroque ornament. Five entrances lead to five chapels with five altars, and even the Latin word TACUI, I was silent, carved into the building, runs to five letters, echoing the five wounds of Christ. At the center of the dome hangs a large red tongue ringed by flames, the symbol of the saint's own tongue, found intact when his grave in St Vitus Cathedral was opened, the discovery that drove his beatification and the wave of pilgrimage the church was built for. John of Nepomuk was canonized in 1729 and his cult spread across Central Europe, making Zelena hora one of the most visited Baroque pilgrimage sites of its era. UNESCO inscribed the church as a World Heritage Site in 1994.