Centuripe, Italy
5th century BCE
Komotini, Greece
4th century AD
Tengen, Germany
1st century AD
Wadern, Germany
2nd century AD
Popovo, Bulgaria
308-324 AD
Silistra, Bulgaria
c. 350 AD
Belene, Bulgaria
1st century AD
Montana, Bulgaria
1st century AD
Kozloduy, Bulgaria
1st century AD
Patras, Greece
2nd century AD
Nules, Spain
1st century BCE
Sceaux-du-Gâtinais, France
1st century AD
The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.