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The Kołbacz Abbey was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1173 with the original Latin name 'Mera Vallis'. The monks were invited into Pomerania by Warcisław II Świętoborzyc, a castellan of Szczecin, as part of an agreement with Valdemar I of Denmark, who had besieged Szczecin and made Warcisław his vassal. The first monks originally arrived from the Danish Esrum Abbey. The foundation was affirmed by Duke Bogusław I in 1173. The first abbot was Reinhold and the abbey began its activities in 1174. The wealth of the Abbey was based on banking, as much as land ownership.
Currently it is the site of an agricultural complex near Szczecin, which partly houses the Zoological Experimental Institute of the Kraków Technical Institute.
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.