The wayside cross in Nepomuky from Jiří and Lenka Křížovi

A wayside cross stands by the Chapel of St John of Nepomuk in Nepomuky na Moravě, a hamlet of Stará Říše in the Jihlava District. Jiří and Lenka Křížovi, of the local gamekeeper’s lodge, restored and improved the cross and the ground immediately around it. It is a private gift to the settlement.

On 12 May 2024 the chapel held its traditional pilgrimage. Jiří Kříž gave the chapel metal figures of an angel and a Maltese cross. The statue of St John of Nepomuk inside the chapel was restored by Magdalena Křenková.

The place

The hamlet grew up in the eighteenth century around the chapel from which it takes its name. The first written mention is 1756. The chapel, on the road to Nevcehle, was rebuilt in 1859. A 26-metre lime stands beside it. Once a year, in May, a pilgrimage Mass is said here; processions come from Stará Říše, and the principal celebrant is usually the Premonstratensian abbot from Nová Říše.

Why a cross here

On the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, wayside crosses were put up in thanks, in memory of the dead, or so that a road would not pass without a mark. They were seldom a parish commission. A farm, a couple, a family paid for the work and set the cross where people already stopped.

The Křížovi cross belongs to that line. St John of Nepomuk is shown with a cross in his hand; the settlement bears his name. A cross beside the chapel therefore needs no long inscription.