The Žďár parish is preparing for the reopening of the church on Zelená hora after major repairs

Žďár nad Sázavou – The parish in Žďár nad Sázavou is preparing to reopen the pilgrimage church of Saint John of Nepomuk on Green Mountain, which has undergone extensive repairs in recent years. The celebration will take place over the weekend of October 23 and 24. The program will be divided into several cultural and spiritual events to allow visitors to rotate and familiarize themselves with the course and results of the work, said Pastor Vladimír Záleský on the parish's website.

The pilgrimage site, designed by architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichl, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Roman Catholic parish has been gradually restoring the site since 2015. Experts are now completing work from a project funded by European funds, which has been ongoing since spring 2018. Repairs to the cloister will follow.

The celebrations marking the completion of the church repairs will begin on Saturday, October 23, with a liturgical part. The mass with the renewal of the blessing of the pilgrimage church will start at 16:30, led by the auxiliary bishop of Brno and the general vicar of the diocese, Pavel Konzbul. The ceremony will be accompanied by the Horácká music.

On Sunday, tours will be supplemented by two concerts. The church will be open to the general public for the first time that day starting at 13:00. Two hours later, there will be a concert by the choir Canto nepomucenum from Nepomuk with accompanying commentary on the repairs, and at 18:00, the choir Vocatus Ecumenicus from Jimramov will perform.

The Roman Catholic parish has managed Green Mountain since 2014, and subsequently began the restoration of the monument. Thanks to the subsidized project worth over 40 million crowns, the church has a repaired facade and windows, the interior's sculptural decoration, and all five altars have been restored. The former cemetery between the church and the cloister has been transformed into a pilgrimage meadow. According to the parish, the most complicated task was the restoration of the original floor in the church. Tiles of several shapes in shades of brick, ochre, and black were handcrafted.

The church was consecrated in 1722. After the fire of the pilgrimage site in 1784, the then administration allowed repairs on the condition that the church would serve as a burial site. The cemetery there was abolished in the 1990s as a result of the inclusion of Green Mountain in the UNESCO list.