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Šv. Jonas Nepomukas

Saint John of Nepomuk

Nepomuk c. 1345 - Praha 1393
confessor of the queen of Bohemia, refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. At the behest of King Wenceslaus of Bohemia he was thrown from the Charles Bridge in Prague and drowned. John of Nepomuk is patron saint of bridges
(Wikipedia)

Stanisław Horno-Popławski
1935

Description

Polychrome stone statue of St. John of Nepomuk in a small chapel on top of a round column. The column is 14 m high, 3.24 m wide and consists of three parts: a four-side granite pillar on which a column of stuccoed brick stands. This supports a tiny square "chapel" with a four-slope pyramid tiled roof. Above the rooftop stands a metal "saulute" or little sun.

Annotation

From the Trakai Historical National Park website:

The statue was built in what used to be the middle of them market square and is mentioned in records for the first time in 1622. The present appearance was created in the mid-nineteenth century when a statue of St John Nepomuk was placed on the column. The statue was torn down after the 1863 Uprising and in its place the arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania surmounted by the Russian eagle coat of arms was hung at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The column was destroyed during World War One and in 1935 it was rebuilt by the mayor of Trakai, Colonel Zajączkowski. This statue of St John Nepomuk was designed by the Vilnius sculptor Stanisław Horno-Poplawski and a metal cross was fixed atop the roof. That autumn the column was consecrated by the parish priest Henryk Hlebowicz who was beatified in Warsaw as a martyr on June 13 1999. Around 1960 the statue of St John was removed from its housing and tossed into the lake by the Soviet authorities. Later the statue was found by the Trakai Museum and taken into its holdings in 1961. In 1969 Mikulionis designed the restoration of the column and a wooden horseman took the place of St John Nepomuk. As Lithuanian independence was being restored the Stanisław Horno-Poplawski statue was restored in 1990 in the P. Gudynas Restoration Centre and returned to the column.

Statues of Saint John of Nepomuk

The figure of Saint John of Nepomuk is often encountered in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Poland and Lithuania. He is usually portrayed with

a halo of five stars, commemorating the stars that hovered over the Vltava River on the night of his murder, also is said that the five stars are supposed to symbolize the five letters of Latin word "tacet", which means "silent".
Other attributes:
a priestly dress
the palm of martyrs
a large crucifix, to which he is usually looking.

As additional figures there are often one of more little angels, respectively

indicating silence by a finger over the lips,
with a crucifix
with the bible.

There are several sites listing statues of Saint John of Nepomuk:

Saxa Loquuntur, Svatý Jan Nepomucký: Svatojánské sochy v českých a moravských krajských mĕstech, in Czech
Nepomuki, in Polish.
Treffpunkt Schoener-Reisen, Sankt Nepomuk, der Brückenheilige , in German.
Gerhard Eichinger, Nepomuk Sammlung [➝ Geschichte(n) ➝ Nepomuk Sammlung], in German.
Wedigo von Wedel, www.brueckenheilige.de, in German.

Sculptor

Stanisław Horno-Popławski (Kutaisi, Georgia 1902 - Sopot, Poland 1997), Polish sculptor (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

Trakai Historical National Park, Chapel Column.

Locatie (N 54°38'40" - E 24°56'8") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Item Code: lt072; Photograph: 14 July 2013
Of each statue we made photos from various angles and also detail photos of the various texts.
If you want to use photos, please contact us via the contact form (in Dutch, English or German).
© Website and photos: René & Peter van der Krogt

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