Václav Vejmluva

Václav Vejmluva was born in 1670. When he was 18 he left his family, who owned a brewery in Brno and came to Žďár. However the same year the church in Žďár burnt and it was not possible to live there, so Václav went to Western Bohemia. After moving here he started to study in Prague and in 1695 he became a priest.

When he came back to Žďár after studying in Prague, the church was renovated by a new abbot Edmund Wagner. At the beginning Vejmluva worked there as an economist and then helped to abbot.

In 1705 the abbot Wagner died, Vejmluva became a new abbot , he was confirmed by the Emperor.

The following years of Vejmluva’s life were dedicated to the unceasing care of the economic and spiritual development of the monastery.

After a few years Vaclav met a young architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. In this time there were formed magnificent buildings, some of the buldings have been preserved up to now. The pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk on the Green Hill is rightly considered the most remarkable building designed by Santini.

In 1737 the monastery set on fire and the fire burnt a large part of the library. The fire had a huge tragic impact on sixty-seven-year-old abbot Vejmluva. The old man didn’t manage to cope with the horrible accident and three days after the fire he died.

Eva Fousová