Villers-Bettnach Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in the commune of Saint-Hubert. In 1134 Heinrich von Spanheim, abbot of Morimond Abbey, founded Villers-Bettnach Abbey on land given for the purpose by Simon I, Duke of Lorraine; Heinrich himself was the first abbot, holding the position together with that at Morimond. The community flourished, and monks from Villers-Bettnach later settled a number of daughter houses.
In 1552 the monastery was laid waste. Between 1724 and 1729 a new church was built. The French Revolution caused the dissolution of the monastery in 1790, and the abbey buildings and site were turned over to agricultural uses. Those buildings that survived were later acquired by the town of Boulay-Moselle (Bolchen), which built a convalescent home there. The site is now looked after by the Association des Amis des Sites de St-Hubert.
The cloister was sited to the north of the church. The monumental gateway arch of the 17th century (the Portail Coislin) survives, as do numerous remains of the 13th century church, a vaulted hall church of six bays with a transept and a polygonal apse, and a Chapel of St. Catherine with bifora windows, which stands over a building of the 12th century. Another survival is the 17th century Peasants' Chapel (German: Bauernkapelle; French: Chapelle des Humbles), which is now used as a parish church. The conventual buildings were somewhere to the left of the church.
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.