The Makelaria Monastery is a 6th-century Eastern Orthodox monastery located in the Peloponnese, Greece. It lies on a big rock near the villages of Lapanagoi, at a distance of 30 km from the town of Kalavryta. The monastery, one of the oldest in Greece, was founded in 532 AD and is dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos.
It has a small Byzantine church with a beautiful wooden-carved screen, on which the icon of the Virgin is placed. This is an authentic Byzantine art piece, with a distinctive feature: wherever you stand, the Virgin's eyes give you the impression that they follow you. The holy icon of the Virgin, along with a pot full of olive oil, was found in the 15th century in an area close to the Monastery.
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.