Kaliakra is a long and narrow headland in the Southern Dobruja region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located 12 km east of Kavarna and 60 km northeast of Varna. The coast is steep with vertical cliffs reaching 70 m down to the sea.
In 4th century BC a settlement called Tirrisis was founded bearing the name of a local Thracian tribe. In Roman times the fortress rapidly grew – lots of public buildings and facilities were built. There were plumbing system, churches, public baths (Roman thermes), fortification walls most of which can still be seen today. The cape became a strong Bulgarian fortress and flourished in the second half of the 14th century as a capital of the Dobrotitsa dukedom. It was a powerful medieval town minting its own coins. The fortress declined when it was conquered by The Ottoman Empire.
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.