The Santa Maria del Sepolcro is a gothic-style church in Potenza. The church is located at the crossing of two Roman roads, and is the locale where tradition holds that the St Gerard of Potenza, then bishop of the town, transmuted water into wine.
A church was erected in the early 12th century by the Knights Templar, but was placed under the bishop in 1314. Rebuilt in 1488, and refurbished in 1652, at which time, the church was affiliated with an order of observant Franciscans.
The interior has a baroque altar (1656) with an urn putatively holding a relic of the blood of Christ. The nave ceiling has octagonal gilded wood cassettoni. The church has a 16th-century Immaculate Conception with St Francis and St Roch; a Madonna of the Graces with Saints Francis and Patrick (1582); and a Adoration of the Shepherds by Giovanni Ricca.
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.