The Roman Villa of Paturro is an archaeological site of a large Roman villa located in the mining Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión , in the vicinity of the town of Portmán. The excavations since 1969 have revealed the existence, in terraced sectors, of two well differentiated parts: One part, decorated with great luxury of materials, is dedicated to housing and another part dedicated to industrial exploitation.
The town of Paturro shows two different levels of occupation. A first level from the republican era in which the town would be linked to the exploitation of silver, lead and other metals from the Carthago Nova mines. A second level dates from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD in which the town appears associated with exploitations of garum (salted fish). The villa was abandoned in the 3rd century.
Among all the remains found, a large polychrome mosaic stands out (the largest in the Region of Murcia) that shows the figures of a deity and a peacock . Also noteworthy is the white marble head of a satyr. Numerous remains of parietal painting and coatings and architectural elements of marble of different types have also been found.
The large polychrome mosaic, with some other fragments from the excavations, is deposited in the Archaeological Museum of La Unión located in the hamlet of Portmán, while the rest of the materials are distributed between the archaeological museums of Cartagena and Murcia.
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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.