Statue of St. John Nepomucen (Figura św. Jana Nepomucena)

Statues of the patron of roads and bridges are commonly found at road intersections. The statue at this site was raised in 1752 to commemorate the paving of Warsaw’s streets, street lighting, and completion of a sewage canal system, as the Latin inscription states. The saint holds a cross – one of three which the square is named after. Two remaining gilded crucifixes stand at his sides. St. John Nepomucen, of Czech origin, is the patron saint of roads, bridges, travelers, and confessional secrets and was a canon of a Prague cathedral. According to legend, he died for his refusal to reveal the confessional secrets of Queen Sophia. Her husband had him drowned in the Veltava River.