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Founded: 19th centuryCategory: Palaces, manors and town halls in Latvia
Historical period: Part of the Russian Empire (Latvia)
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Snēpele Palace was originally built at the beginning of the 19th century as a baronial hunting lodge with two room apartments for guests on the second floor. The building has housed the Snēpele primary school since 1924.
The building has decorated columns on both sides of the portico, and the wrought iron railing dates from the first half of the 19th century. The exterior doors are from the second half of the 19th century. The first floor has a hall with a beautiful painting on the ceiling. The second floor has a guest lounge with large rooms.
Preserved in the palace are three fireplaces, four columns and four furnaces. The corridors on both ends of the second floor remain with large semi-circular windows decorated with impressive ornaments. In the basement is the kitchen with auxiliary rooms where the school cafeteria is now located. Meals are taken to the dining room floor through an elevator.
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.