Babelsberg Palace lies in the eponymous park and quarter of Potsdam, the capital of the German state of Brandenburg. For over 50 years it was the summer residence of Prince William, later Emperor William I and his wife, Augusta of the House of Saxe-Weimar. On 22 September 1862 in the palace and adjoining park the discussion between King William I and Bismarck took place that ended with the nomination of Bismarck as Minister President and Foreign Minister of Prussia. The building, designed in the English Gothic style, was built in two phases over the period 1835–1849. The contract to plan the palace was given to the architects Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Ludwig Persius and Johann Heinrich Strack.
Babelsberg Palace is managed by the Berlin-Brandenburg Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens (Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg) and is protected by UNESCO as a world heritage site within the Potsdam ensemble. The architecture of Babelsberg Palace formed the template for the construction of Kittendorf Palace between 1848 and 1853 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, by Schinkel's pupil, Friedrich Hitzig.
Since 2013, the Palace is undergoing an intense renovation of its facades and interiors.
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.