Třebíč native Jan Nepomuk Soukop studied philosophy and theology in Brno after graduating from the German Piarist grammar school in Moravská Třebová. After his ordination in 1849 Soukop worked briefly in Letovice and then in 1849-1862 in the town of Sloup, which belonged to the Rájec estate of the Salm-Reifferscheidt family. During his time in Sloup, Soukop began to cooperate intensively with the greatest researcher of the Moravian Karst, Jindřich Wankel, and became his friend and collaborator. Thanks to Wankel, Soukop acquired extensive knowledge of karst caves and also participated in some of Wankel`s exploratory expeditions, e.g. to Macocha in 1856. Soukop then discussed the karst excavations in his prose, wrote about Wankel`s discoveries and popularised them. Thus, in his 1855 book entitled Flowers from Sloup, he described karst phenomena for the first time in Czech, especially the Kůlna cave or the Hřebenáč rock formation in front of the entrance to the Sloup caves. Soukop continued to cover the Moravian Karst in his work in the following years and became the first author of a karst guidebook. It was published in 1858 under the title Macocha and its surroundings. In this guide, Soukop not only describes Macocha, Punkva, the stalactites in Ochozská Cave or mentions Kateřina Cave for the first time on the basis of his own observations; his contribution is also the introduction of Czech speleological terminology, such as sinkholes, deeps, chimneys, ridges or dolines. In 1857, at the request of J. E. Purkyně, Soukop wrote an article for the journal Živa entitled Newer Natural Research in the Sloup Region, in which he reports on his own observations of Wankel`s researches and presents Wankel`s findings.
Jan Nepomuk Soukop died in 1892 in Doubravice nad Svitavou, where he was also buried. On the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1926, Soukop's remains were transferred to a place of honour in the Velehrad cemetery (at the back of the Church of the Epiphany) because Soukop was also intensely interested in Velehrad during his lifetime and contributed to the development of this pilgrimage site.
