The Deutschherrenhaus or Deutschordenshaus in Koblenz was the first settlement of the Teutonic Order Knights in Rhineland. The divine order of knights played a substantial role in the East German colonisation. Since 1929 it has been a clerical order and is, after the Maltese Order and the templars, the third largest order of knights which was formed at the time of the crusades. The chosen motto of the order is “help, defend and heal“.
The Archbishop Theoderich von Wied summoned the Knights of the Teutonic Order to Koblenz in 1216 and presented them from the St. Castor’s Foundation a piece of land together with the St. Nikolaus hospital that was located directly at the point where the Moselle flows into the Rhine.
Due to the destruction in 1944, Deutschherrenhaus, the former administrative building of the Teutonic Order is the only building among the many that has remained till nowadays. Since 1992 it has been the house for the Ludwig Museum, devoted primarily to the French art.
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.