Built beside the small Byzantine church of St. Symeon, the church of St. George was a Orthodox Cathedral. An elegant mix of Gothic and Byzantine styles it was intended to rival its Catholic counterpart. However it was too big, with insufficient buttressing and a roof that was going to be too heavy. The pillars throughout the nave were expanded to take more weight and the roof was inserted with large upturned terracotta pots to spread the load. The church was not in existence long enough to find out if the builders may have eventually got things right. Taking the brunt of the Ottoman bombardment in 1571, evidence of which is still very evident in the remaining walls, the building stood for a little over a hundred years.
There are 15th century fresco fragments clearly visible in the three apses, though these are fading fast and there is no move to preserve them.
St. Symeon is accessible from St. George, it is a church with twin apses and is most notable for being the last resting place in Cyprus of St. Epiphanios one time Bishop of Salamis.
There are two other small churches nearby in what was once the Orthodox quarter of the city, Ayia Zoni, 14th C Byzantine, the church is intact and contains frescoes but is closed to the public. Close to it is another church of the same period, St. Nicholas (not to be confused with the catholic cathedral), a double-aisled church with two semi-circular apses and dome, otherwise a ruin.
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.