Chapel of Saint John of Nepomuk

The Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk in Sentice is a small 19th-century place of worship standing at a road fork in the heart of the village, some twenty kilometers northwest of Brno. Modest in size, it makes up for its scale with a carefully detailed neo-renaissance façade that ranks among the more interesting sacred monuments in the area.

How to get there?

Sentice lies in the Brno-venkov district of the South Moravian Region, roughly 20-23 km northwest of Brno. The easiest way to reach the village is by car, with the drive from Brno taking under half an hour. The chapel stands right in the village center, at a fork in the road, making it hard to miss even during a brief stop on the way to nearby Veveří Castle or the Vysočina hills.

What will you see?

The chapel was built in 1878 as a Roman Catholic place of worship and dedicated to St. John of Nepomuk. The building is only 5.1 meters wide, but its small footprint is offset by carefully executed detail. The presbytery ends in a semicircular apse, and the interior is covered by a domed vault.

The façade draws most of the attention. A semicircular portal is flanked on each side by two pilasters with stylized Ionic capitals, carrying a profiled entablature with dentils. Above it rises a tall tympanum topped with a cornice, also dentiled, holding a bronze relief of the Madonna surrounded by rays, flanked by Empire-style laurel sprigs.

The interior furnishings date from around the same period as the chapel itself: a wooden altar table and a late Baroque altar dated to around 1770 — older than the building, which suggests it may have been moved here from an earlier chapel or manor church.

Directly opposite the chapel, by house No. 80, stand two Baroque statues: St. John of Nepomuk from 1775 and St. Florian from 1854. Both are listed as protected cultural monuments and, together with the chapel, form a small but coherent religious ensemble at the center of the village.

A little village history

Sentice was first mentioned in written records in 1358. From 1519 the village belonged to the Veveří Castle estate, and for a time it also had its own small fortification, which disappeared during regional armed conflicts. Since 1694 the village has used its own seal, featuring two crossed scythes. Today Sentice has around 636 residents, and a war memorial commemorating the victims of both world wars stands near the chapel in the village center.

When to visit?

The chapel is small and best appreciated from the outside, so the season matters less than the light — pick a clear day to make out the detail of the portal and the tympanum relief. Spring and summer are good times to combine a visit with a trip to the nearby Vysočina hills or to Veveří Castle, only a short drive away.

Frequently asked questions

When was the chapel in Sentice built? In 1878, as a Roman Catholic chapel dedicated to St. John of Nepomuk.

What architectural style is the chapel? Neo-renaissance, with a semicircular portal, Ionic-capital pilasters, and a domed interior vault.

What is inside the chapel? A wooden altar table and a late Baroque altar from around 1770, older than the chapel building itself.

What else is worth seeing nearby? Opposite the chapel, by house No. 80, stand two protected Baroque statues: St. John of Nepomuk (1775) and St. Florian (1854).