The Drents Museum is an art and history museum in Assen, Netherlands. The museum was opened in 1854. It has a collection of prehistorical artifacts, applied art, and visual art.
The museum is located in the earlier Marienkamp Abbey. It was founded in 1215 and moved to the present Assen in 1258.
The community ceased to exist during the Protestant Reformation, around 1596; its formal dissolution took place in 1602. In 1601 the church tower collapsed, and badly damaged the church, which was rebuilt in 1662: of the mediaeval structure only the south wall remained.
In 1848 the church was sold to the municipality, which used it as a community centre. Since 1982 it has been used as part of the Drents Museum.
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.