The archaeological site of Menelaion is located approximately 5 km from the modern city of Sparta. The geographical structure of this site includes a hill complex (Northern hill, Menelaion, Profitis Ilias and Aetos).
Menelaion was a Mycenaean acropolis (founded 15th - 12th centuries BC), with a building that was built in three phases and probably had a palatial character. Count of the Achaeans, perhaps identical with the Sparta of the Homeric epic. In a place of perhaps prehistoric worship, on a hill, a sanctuary of Menelaus and Helen, who were worshiped here as gods, was founded in geometric times. Remains of two men with rectangular analemmas, one enclosing the other (6th and 5th centuries BC). Uphill access leads to the foundations of a rectangular temple inside.
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.