The gothic Church of St Dominic used to stand west of the Land gate. The first Croatian university mentioned in 1396 was a part of the monastery.
This former church building has had an interesting past. Consecrated in 1280, it belonged to a Dominican monastery who founded the first university in Croatia there (1396). When Napoleon took Zadar in 1805, he abolished the Dominican order, turned the church into a barracks, and shut down the university.
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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.