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he Château de Brantes is an 18th-century manor house with a contemporary garden inspired by the gardens of Tuscany, located in the town of Sorgues. The gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture among the Remarkable Gardens of France.
The garden, 1.1 hectares in area, is enclosed by a wall of stones. It features a Magnolia grandiflora tree that is 200 years old, one of the oldest in Europe, Lagerstroemia trees a hundred years old, and a plantation of plane trees dating to 1816. Flowers include plantings of peony, rose, agapanthia and althea.
The house was built in 1700 by Pierre del Bianco, the marquis de Brantes, the paymaster for the soldiers of the papal state of Avignon. It was enlarged in 1816 by General de Cessac, a minister of Emperor Napoleon I, and by his wife Sibylle de Brantes, who created the park. The park was restored and the contemporary garden begun in 1956 by Louis and Madelaine de Brantes, the parents of the current owner of the chateau.
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.