Kostel svatého Jana Nepomuckého s farou Church

In Svatý Jan nad Malší near Českobudějovice stands a late Baroque parish church dedicated to Saint John of Nepomuk. It ranks among the youngest pilgrimage sites in Bohemia. Since nineteen fifty-eight it has been a cultural monument, and the rectory and church tower are also protected.

The origins of this place are tied to the year seventeen thirty-two. A vicar from Velešín named Jan Bernard Rierenschopl allegedly saw five stars appearing above the local hill, a symbol of Saint John of Nepomuck. This was merely three years after the saint's canonization. This vision apparently prompted him to build a pilgrimage chapel, which was consecrated in seventeen thirty-five.

The church we see today rose in place of the chapel between seventeen seventy-seven and seventeen eighty-two. A collection among residents of Ločenice also contributed to its construction. In seventeen eighty-five the church acquired a choir loft, and a year later a rectory was added. The tower was obtained only during renovations in eighteen twenty-three and eighteen twenty-four, which were significantly supported financially by Count Jan Nepomuk Josef Buquoy from Nové Hrady. The clock was added to it in nineteen hundred six. Around the church during the eighteenth century a settlement emerged, which took its name from the saint. Renovation of the building was completed in two thousand eighteen.

The church is a single-nave structure with a sacristy and chancel. The tower with stairs stands on the western side. On both sides it is surrounded by an ambulatory, which turns toward the east. To the north the rectory is attached to it with its own entrance to the courtyard, and the southern wing of the ambulatory is used by the neighbouring school. The cemetery lies to the east of the church. From a historical preservation perspective, the wooden floors, timber ceilings, vaults, and historical doors with handcrafted ironwork are valuable.

On the main carved Rococo altar hangs a painting of Saint John of Nepomuck from eighteen fifty-two. Among the Saint John monuments belongs a decorated cross containing relics of the saint, which the local vicar gave to the church in nineteen hundred eight. The original bells from the workshop of Jiří Václav Kohler were confiscated in nineteen seventeen for war purposes. The church received new ones in July nineteen twenty-three.

In front of the church grow two linden trees planted in nineteen nineteen, named Masaryk and Libuše. In the year two thousand a third was added, planted by President Václav Havel together with his wife Dagmar. The church lies at an elevation of six hundred fourteen metres, so there is a good view of the surrounding countryside from it. Every year on the sixteenth of May, on the feast day of Saint John of Nepomuck, a pilgrimage takes place to the church. In the village square stands also a statue of the saint from eighteen seventy-three by Jan Kadlec from Trhové Sviny.