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Lubenice is an ancient fort city on the island of Cres that was founded approximately 4000 years ago on top of a 380 m high ridge that overlooks the Adriatic Sea. It is a small local center that comprises forty buildings and seven permanent inhabitants. Buildings in the city are mainly constructed out of the same material as the surrounding cliffs, a lesser part dates back to a former settlement of ancient Romans. There are two well-preserved extant city gates on the North and South of the city as well a wall in the East.
References: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.