At the historical crossing of merchant routes to Bavaria and Austria, some 30 kilometres south of Pilsen is where the town of Nepomuk lies. It consists of two former independent parts: Nepomuk proper, and the joint villages of Dvorce and Železná Hut' where the railway station is found now. The population amounts to some 3,500 and the local dominant is the château of Zelená Hora. Nepomuk emerged through the integration of Přesanice and Pomuk, two formerly independent settlements. The name has been used since the l3th century, more precisely 1284, the oldest surviving written document says. In 1413, Nepomuk was promoted to town by King Wenceslas IV. There are several statues, a chapel, a couple of churches, the archdeanery and the old post-office of Zelená Hora, that have survived from ancient times. The small John the Baptist's Church yielded to the St John of Pomuk's pilgrimage basilica in 1734- 36 which was built by the Bohemian baroque architect K. I. Dientzenhofer to the order of Adolf Bernard of Martinice, owner of Zelená Hora at that time. There are more sights that adorn the face of Nepomuk: the solid archdeanery and the old post-office of Zelená Hora. Redeveloped from a small Romanesque church by the Cistercians in the l3th and l4th centuries, the Gothic St Jacob's Church is a prominent cultural treasure. The fire, that struck the organ in 1955 revealed a 1618 ceiling painting. The dilapidated belfry that had covered the sacristy was removed around 1780 and replaced by the present baroque spire which is placed, rather untypically, before the presbytery. The church is unmatched in style. Both churches are still crucial for Nepomuk's architectonic colour. The historical square is dominated by the Town Hall, acquired by the town in 1911, the old school built in 1862-65 for the piarist college, and the stone Virgin Mary's Fountain, with Nepomuk's coat-ofarms, that replaced the old wooden fountain back in 1876. The Town Museum and the Augustin Němec Gallery (painter and native of Nepomuk) are other notable buildings in the square. The St John of Pomuk's statue by Štěpán Kotrba and Milan Vácha was unveiled to commemorate the 600th anniversary of John of Pomuk's martyr death.

Unveiled in 1993, the John-of-Pomuk's statue celebrated the 600th anniversary of the Saint's martyr's death by torture in the presence of papal legate Cardinal Meisner of Cologne and several other representatives of State and Church. In the background you can see the St John-of-Pomuk's Church built where his birth house had been, a legend says

Aerial view of the town and around

St Jacob's Church - Built around 1300, the former Romanesque Chapel is now Nepomuk's oldest sight. The church went through several reconstructions, especially under the Šternberks whose family vault was situated underneath the floor. The Gothic St Jacob's Church used to have a cemetery around

Overall view of Nepomuk's dominants, the St John-of Pomuk's Church and the château of Zelená Hora, the latter of which was built probably by Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk where a medieval castle used to be in 1669-1671. It is an early-baroque three-winged château that has seen several noble families as owners. After World War Two, the château was nationalized and used by the army. The château is now closed