The construction of the pilgrimage church of St John of Nepomuk near the Cistercian monastery of Žďár nad Sázavou was realized thanks to the long-standing, close and extremely fruitful cooperation of two exceptional people. The initiative came from the abbot of the monastery, Václav Vejmluva, who was a devotee of John of Nepomuk, even before his beatification and later canonization.
The preparation of the project is dated to the period between the end of April and the beginning of August 1719 and it is considered Vejmluva's immediate reaction to the discovery of a piece of preserved tissue in the tomb of John of Nepomuk in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague on April 15, 1719. The famous architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel was entrusted with the design of the building and Abbot Vejmluva presented him his ideas about the form of the new church and the symbols used. Santini conceived the project in a completely unique way, regardless of the contemporary customs in the area of church building, accepting only the typical composition of the pilgrimage area. The architect transformed the abbot's idea of a church in which the symbol of the star was to play the main role into an exceptionally impressive design which is only fully appreciated in modern times, and even then not always. In 1886, for example, the member of the Central Commission of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, architect Friedrich Radnitzky, described the church as an "artistically suspicious phenomenon".
The project was carried out unusually quickly, but this was nothing unusual for Santini. Moreover, the abbot and the architect had collaborated for many years and were both skilled in the fields of symbolism and Kabbalistic doctrine, applied to a large extent in the design of the church. Santini understood very well what was required of him and the resulting architecture was certainly positively influenced by the atmosphere of mutual understanding. The final appearance of the building does not differ very much from the first plan and only minor changes were made during its construction.
