THE LOST CHAPEL OF ST. JOHN OF NEPOMUK (Unterthal)
Historical topography of the town of Jáchymov records the existence of a now-lost Chapel of St John of Nepomuk in the lower part of the town. The structure is known mainly from a written description in early 20th-century inventory literature and is often omitted in modern surveys. The principal and so far only detailed description is a record by Richard Schmidt from 1913.
Description of the chapel according to Richard Schmidt (1913)
In Schmidt’s work, the chapel is listed in the chapter “Minor chapels” and generally located as a building “in the lower part of the town”. Schmidt does not provide a more precise topographical identification.
From an architectural point of view, it was a small rectangular masonry chapel of Baroque character, plastered in yellow and white. The roof was covered with roofing felt. The side walls contained rectangular windows. The façade was finished with a three-sided triangular gable and opened by a rectangular entrance with eared moulding and a central keystone. The façades were articulated by pilaster strips and stucco decoration. The interior was covered by a flat reed ceiling.
The interior furnishings included a coffin-shaped marbled altar mensa, above which stood a statue of St John of Nepomuk in a niche. The walls also held carved wooden figures of saints placed on consoles. Schmidt does not mention their names or iconographic details. He dates the chapel to the first half of the 18th century.
The chapel in cartographic sources – the Third Military Survey
The chapel’s existence is also documented in 19th-century cartographic sources. The building appears on special maps of the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary (scale 1:75,000), produced between 1875 and 1880 and later updated.
On the map sheet covering the Jáchymov area, a small freestanding structure is marked in the lower part of the town near a road, indicated by the standard cartographic symbol for minor masonry buildings. Its position corresponds to Schmidt’s general location “in the lower part of the town” and confirms that the chapel still existed in the second half of the 19th century and was regarded as a stable feature of the urban landscape.
The map does not include a textual description or dedication, yet the isolated depiction outside continuous development matches the character of a small sacred building. The Third Military Survey thus provides an independent indirect record of the chapel’s existence after its construction and long before its disappearance in the 20th century.
Conclusion
The lost Chapel of St John of Nepomuk in the lower part of Jáchymov is today known only from a limited number of sources. The key source remains the detailed description by Richard Schmidt from 1913, which allows reconstruction of its architectural form and interior furnishings. Cartographic evidence from the Third Military Survey confirms its existence as late as the end of the 19th century and helps clarify its position within the town’s urban structure. Its exact location in today’s terrain and the circumstances of its disappearance are not yet reliably documented.
