The Temple Neuf in Strasbourg is a Lutheran church built on the site of the famous Dominican convent where Meister Eckhart studied. The Temple was constructed at the end of the 19th century after the old Dominican Church was destroyed during the Siege of Strasbourg on the night of 24 to 25 August, during the Franco-Prussian War. The ensuing fire also destroyed the libraries of the University of Strasbourg and the City of Strasbourg which were located at the Temple Neuf site.
The Dominican convent had been built in 1260 and in 1538 the Jean Sturm Gymnasium was attached. When Strasbourg became Protestant in 1590, the library of the Protestant seminary was transferred to the convent building.
The current church building was built from 1874 to 1877 in pink sandstone and a Neo-Romanesque style. The architect was Emile Salomon. The name 'Temple Neuf' is a translation of the German name 'Neue Kirche' that the former Dominican Church had carried since 1681, when, with the annexation of Strasbourg by Louis XIV of France, the Protestants had to leave Strasbourg Cathedral.
The Church contains the tombstone of Johannes Tauler, the famous Dominicain mystic and preacher.
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.