Established from 1332 to 1339 as a foundation endowed by the wealthy patrician Konrad Groß for the elderly and needy. Considered the largest private endowment by any individual before 1500.
The Hospital of the Holy Spirit was established in 1332–39 by Konrad Gross, a wealthy patrician, for the care for the elderly and needy. It was the largest private endowment in the Holy Roman Empire up to 1500. After 1500 the building complex was extended over the Pegnitz according to plans by Hans Beheim the Elder. Two structures along the southern arm of the river and the north wall of the former hospital church with its polygonal ridge-turret survive.
From 1424 to 1796, the imperial regalia were kept in the hospital church (not reconstructed after the war). In the arcaded Kreuzigungshof, there are the central figures of Adam Kraft’s Crucifixion group (ca 1506/08) and the tomb monuments of Konrad Gross (d. 1356) and Herdegen Valzner (d. 1423).
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.