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Ruth Kinnear (2 years ago)
The ruined church on the White Island has a reconstructed plain Romanesque doorway. Secured to the north side of the south wall are eight carvings (seven figures and one head) built into the masonry of the church. Most of the figures were carved wearing the long tunics of churchmen. They are all carved in quartzite and were probably 'constructed' between 800 and 1000, and were later used as building stones in the church, before being uncovered in recent centuries. Helen Hickey has identified them as three pairs of caryatids. Each pair a different height and suggests that because of the sockets on the top of their heads that they may have supported a pulpit or preaching chair of an earlier possible wooden church. One popular theory is that the figures illustrate an episode in the life of St. Patrick, when Patrick heals a local King. This event is linked strongly with the Cathedral in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
There are eight figures in all, including an uncarved figure, suggesting the figures were carved on-site, and a frowning face, or 'mask'. An inscribed cross-carved stone was discovered built into the wall around the church.
It is recorded in the Annals that the Vikings attacked and destroyed the monasteries in Lough Erne in AD 837. For at least 400 years therefore these carvings may have laid in the ruins before a stone Romanesque style church was built.
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.