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The Cathedral of San Sabino was founded in the 8th century by the Lombards Duke Arechis II of Benevento, after the abandonment of early Christian sites in San Leucio and St. Peter. It was named after St. Sabinus of Canosa in 1101, by Pope Paschal II, some four hundred years after the transfer of the saint's remains in the crypt.
The plan of the basilica is a Latin cross, covered by five domes and an apse lit by three windows, whose central body is covered with a stained glass window depicting the patron saint. It is an example of Romanesque/Byzantine architecture. Below the chancel are the crypt, shrine of the saint. The arches are supported by marble columns with Corinthian capitals, which were retrieved from devastated ancient monuments. The cathedral lies three feet below the square.
After the earthquake of 1851, the cathedral was damaged and the restoration work led to an expansion of the Latin cross, as well as the reconstruction of the facade in local tuff with three portals, each corresponding to the aisles. The chapels contain in order: a baptismal font, a fresco, an altar dedicated to Our Lady of the Fountain (protectress of Canosa) whose icon came after the First Crusade, in the adjacent Mausoleum of Bohemond, the wooden statue and a painting of Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, and the tomb of Blessed Father Antonio Maria Losito (1838–1917).
The left aisle houses the tomb of the Bishop of Lecce Archbishop Francesco Minerva (1904–2004) following three chapels: one containing the relics, chalices, crucifixes, and a silver bust of the saint enclosed by an iron grating, and the other dedicated to St. Anthony (but with canvas representing St. Francis of Assisi), the third devoted to St. Anne. On the left arm of a Latin cross are two other chapels that of the St. Sacramento containing the statue of the Sacred Heart and the other of St. Joseph.
The presbytery has a high altar with ciborium, set on a marble base with three steps, surmounted by a canopy supported by four red marble columns with Corinthian capitals, octagonal pyramid in two sections held up a total of 48 columns of the same marble, very similar to that in the Basilica of San Nicola di Bari.
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.