Pilgrimage Church of St. John the Baptist
The Johannisberg Church stands on the 605 meter high Johannisberg of the same name, the westernmost foothills of the Upper Palatinate Forest, on the western edge of a prehistoric ring wall.
The Count Palatine Frederick IV, a strict Calvinist, considered this "human work as an attempt to impair the sovereignty of God". He promptly had the church blown up in 1594. Half a century later (1652) the church was rebuilt on the Johannisberg.
It consists of a nave covered with a gable roof, a square choir flanked on both sides by sacristies with oratories above, a facade tower in the west covered with an eight-sided curved helmet, and a chapel at the southwest corner of the nave, which sits under a pent roof. The top floor of the facade tower houses the bell tower, in which three church bells hang.
The altars, the artistic coffered ceiling, the picturesque double gallery and the benches were made by Matthias Pösl from Oberviechtach. The interior of the nave is covered with a coffered ceiling, that of the choir with a lancet vault. The sacristies are covered with groin vaults. The parapets of the nave, which is equipped with two-story galleries, are decorated with pictures from the lives of John, the four evangelists and the four doctors of the church.
On the high altar, which dates from 1712, the image of John the Baptist is surrounded by the large figures of his parents, Zacharias and Elisabeth, and outside by the apostles John and James. The side altars from 1717 are dedicated to Mary and Lawrence.
The pulpit was taken over in 1715 from the predecessor chapel of the Amberg Mariahilfberg Chapel. As early as 1688, an outside chapel was added to the Johannisberg Church for larger crowds of pilgrims. They even built an outdoor pulpit. During the extension work in 1712/13, the chapel was demolished and rebuilt in 1729. The beautiful acanthus altar in the chapel was created by Hans Ulrich from Vilseck.
The Johannisberg Church is the highest church in the Amberg-Sulzbach district. Services are held every year on the Johannisberg Festival and on the Mountain Rescue Festival on the second Sunday in August. Since 1983, a Stations of the Cross have led to the mountain church.
Source: Information board