Modern history
Only part of the church windows was replaced in postwar years 1922 and 1923 . The ambulatory was neglected and deteriorated. The Second World War and the postwar years meant a total lack of repairs and maintenance of the church. The pilgrimage destination became the property of the state in 1953 and the state also assumed the obligation to provide the maintenance. The church was reconstructed only in the 1970s and at the beginning of the 1980s. Regarding the development of the theory of monument preservation as a field of studies and the influence of the theory on everyday practises, the authorities started to prepare a series of reconstructions, process successively detailed researches and plan projects for the individual reconstructions. The reconstruction efforts as well as the identification of how to reconstruct the church authentically, did not sometimes avoided technical mistakes and problems started to occur concerning the professionality of the reconstruction. The new generations of craftsmen lacked experience and habits relating to the original technologies.
Authorities started to prepare documents allowing the inclusion of the church in UNESCO´s World Heritage List in 1994. UNESCO´s World Heritage Committee approved to include the pilgrimage church in the prestigious list at the end of 1994.
Thus the National Heritage Institute, a specialised organization, even strengthened the supervision of all happenings in the church. All steps concerning the repairs and reconstructions do not only have to be considered properly but they also need to be documented and presented in the so called monitoring report which is produced every year in connection with monuments included in the World Heritage List.
The Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelena hora was returned to the property of the church - The Roman Catholic Parish of Zdar nad Sazavou II in August 2014, after a long period of 50 years.
"As I said before, we would like to return the Church of St John of Nepomuk to regular pilgrimage services and ceremonies and provide spiritual services to pilgrim groups but we also want to make it accessible for everybody who wants to see this pearl of architecture and our spiritual history. We also plan to offer the visitors more possibilities during the off-season when most sights are closed. Wide range of spiritual cultural programmes and concerts are planned ass well as suitable educational programmes for schools. We would like to increase the quality of the UNESCO monument presentation and tourist services through dutiful choice, education and training of our tourist guides."P. Mgr. Vladimir Zalesky, Parish priest
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