Rating
4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)
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User Reviews
rolf vikan (5 years ago)
Mari Skjølberg (6 years ago)
A wonderful fine church
A wonderful fine church
Steve Riedel (6 years ago)
Old Edøy Church was built around the year 1190. It has had numerous renovations over the years to enlarge it and repair it. After several hundred years of use, it was too small and old to continue as the main church for the parish, so it was decided to build a new Edøy Church. The new church would be built to the north, on the island of Smøla instead of the more isolated location of the old church on the small island of Edøya. After the new church was completed in 1885, the old church was not regularly used and in 1887 there was a fire and the church burned down. The ruins of the old church remained until after World War II, when in 1946-1947, the church was rebuilt in a historically-accurate manner and is now protected as a historic site.
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.