Exterior view

The combination of a circular central plan with removed or overlapping ellipses was given virtuoso treatment by Santini Aichel in the votive chapel of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill. Five ovals alternate with five triangular niches arranged regularly round a circle. This produces a linear dynamism which s taken up in the cornice of the dome. For the architect, this shape was a symbol of a sacred event: when St.John Nepomuk was drowned in the river Vltava, five stars were supposed have circled over his head. Pointed shapes and half oval roundels refer to the martyr’s crown with five stars.