Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
Haydar Pasha Mosque, the former church of St. Catherine, was built in the 14th century and it follows the southern France architectural style. The church is an elegant building comprised of a central space covered by two groin vaults. It also has an altar which ends with a three sided apse. On the apse’s northeastern side there is a two-storey building with groin vaults. On the apse’s southwestern side there is a small circular tower with a staircase. This tower has been turned into the mosque’s minaret. Of special interest are the building’s three-sided support pillars that are interrupted by oblong windows.
Three entrances lead to the church’s interior. The largest entrance is located at the centre of the west wall and the other two in the west part of the north and south wall. All three entrances are decorated with rich relief decoration and there is a round window (rosette) above the west entrance.
With the island’s conquest by the Ottomans this church was turned into a mosque and named ‘Haidar Pasha mosque’.
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.