sv. Jan Nepomucký

The Statue of St. John of Nepomuk stands on Freedom Square (Náměstí Svobody) in Svitávka, a small town in the Blansko district of South Moravia, Czech Republic. Carved from sandstone in 1708 by a sculptor whose name was never recorded, it is a modest Baroque monument that shares nothing but its subject with the far more famous statue of the same saint on Prague's Charles Bridge.

Who does the statue depict?

The figure shows the saint in the robes of a canon, wearing a biretta and holding a crucifix in his crossed arms. It originally carried a halo of five stars, roughly 45 cm across — a reference to the legend of five stars said to have appeared over the Vltava River at the spot where the saint drowned. The metal attributes are made of copper and finished with oil gilding, setting them apart from the plain stone of the rest of the monument.

How large is the monument?

The pedestal measures 190 cm in width, 110 cm in depth and 153 cm in height, while the figure itself stands 233 cm tall. For a town the size of Svitávka, this is a genuinely imposing monument, visible from across the open square.

Why has it been moved more than once?

The statue's history is unusually eventful for a small-town monument. It originally stood on Freedom Square, but in 1984 it was relocated to the nearby Church of St. John the Baptist — a response to the recurring floods that have long affected Svitávka, a town built along the Svitava River. It was not until 2006 that the statue returned to its original place on the square.

What legend explains its origin?

No record names the sculptor, but a local legend fills the gap. According to the story, a man in Prague had a dream telling him that near Brno lay a small settlement called Svitávka, and that a statue of St. John of Nepomuk should be raised there, on the town square. The legend offers no further detail, yet it remains the only account — documented or not — of how the monument came to be built.

Is the statue a protected monument?

Yes. It is listed in the Czech Republic's central register of cultural monuments under registration number 86976/7-606. That protected status has come with two documented restorations: one in 2006 (roughly 100,000 CZK) and a more extensive one in 2024 (308,550 CZK), reflecting the local community's ongoing investment in its upkeep.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same statue as the one on Charles Bridge in Prague? No. This is a separate, local monument in Svitávka, more than 200 km from Prague. Only the subject — St. John of Nepomuk — is shared; the form, history and scale of the two monuments are entirely different.

Where exactly is it located? On Freedom Square (Náměstí Svobody), in the centre of Svitávka, a small town in the Blansko district of South Moravia.

When was it made? In 1708. The sculptor's identity was never recorded.

Has it always stood in the same spot? No — flood risk led to its relocation to a nearby church in 1984, and it only returned to the square in 2006.

Is it worth visiting? It is a modest but genuine Baroque monument with a history spanning more than three centuries — a worthwhile stop while exploring Svitávka and the Svitava river valley.