Zdár nad Sázavou
In Zdár nad Sázavou in Zelena Hora there is the
UNESCO protected Church of St. John Nepomuk. The church is special
because of its shape, as it is and the courtyard is also star
likes. The shape is harder to discover from down and the church
looks very different from bird perspective. Zdár nad Sázavou
area is still on construction stage. Once it’s finished
it will be place worth visit.
The Church of John Nepomuk
The story of John Nepomuk is interesting. He lived in 14th century
and worked for the archbishop of Prague. The king Vaclav IV, the
son of the Charles IV, suspected archbishop for treason and tried
to murder him. The bishop got away but John was caught. Vaclav
IV interrogated Nepomuk and tortured him to death by accident.
The body was thrown to river Vltava from the Charles Bridge and
the legend tells that underneath the water in the spot he sunk
was formed flames and “beam of light” [I don’t
know the English word for it]. There is still statue of Nepomuk
in the Charles Bridge and in many other bridges around the area,
as he is believed to be the saint of bridges.
The story continues. The body of Nepomuk was found from the river
and buried by his followers. About 300 years later it was dug
out because they wanted to make him a saint. It was then discovered
that his tong was perfectly survived, being not decayed. This
after the “beam of light” was his second miracle so
he was named saint in the Catholic Church. John Nepomuk is now
buried to Cathedral of St. Vitus and this weird tong is there
also. The survive of the tong through out centuries is believed
to be mark from that he never gave up the location of archbishop,
even when he was tortured.
Cemetery of Church
There are other versions of this story also. One tells that the
king got him killed because he refused to tell what the queen
had told during confession and the survived tong would be prove
from his moral skills. Another story tells that Nepomuk didn’t
want to be the kings apot-kandidate and so he through him to river
his hands and legs tied.
Communists had ”an impartial scientific evaluation”
on the tong of Nepomuk and found out that there was no miracle
done. They discovered that the tong was actually part of brains
that was survived through some unspecified chemical reaction.
I think that even the communists didn’t have a clue what
that reaction was.
The truth remains untold. We all know how Vatican and communist
have always been right, so there is no need to question their
perspectives. The story after Nepomuk is so interesting that who
knows it might be worth believe the story of Nepomuk also…
whichever version pleases you.
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