User Reviews
Today, Puchheim Castle is home to the regional music school, the tower gallery, the parish centre, the Maximilianhaus and the Redemptorist monastery.
Around 800 years ago, a so-called fortress was built in Puchheim, which burnt down completely in 1585. The castle was rebuilt in its present form by the Pollheim family. It was acquired by Count Adam von Herberstorff in 1627. From 1636 to 1760, the castle belonged to the Salburg family. The family of the Counts of Fuchs owned the castle from 1762 to 1838.Archduke Maximilian dÉste, a grandson of Empress Maria Theresa, acquired the Puchheim estate in 1838. In 1851, Maximilian brings the Redemptorists to Puchheim and gives them part of the main castle. The Bourbons inherit the castle in 1886.
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.