The National Museum of Roman Art is an archaeology museum located in Mérida. Devoted to Roman art, it exhibits extensive material from the archaeological ensemble of Mérida (the Roman colony of Augusta Emerita), one of the largest and most extensive archaeological sites in Spain, registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
An archaeology museum in Mérida was created for the first time through a royal order issued on 26 March 1838. On the occasion of the two thousandth anniversary of the city's foundation, the museum was refounded as the National Museum of Roman Art in 1975. The current building is a work by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. Building works started in 1981. The new premises were unveiled on 19 September 1986.
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.