Ehreshoven Castle was originally owned by Siegburg Abbey, which had been founded in 1164 by Archbishop Anno of Cologne. Ehreshoven was first mentioned in 1355 when it existed as a house or small castle. In 1396 it was given to the family of the count of Nesselrode and stayed in their possession until 1920.
Under Wilhelm of Nesselrode, the house was essentially remodelled and the medieval chapel built into the structure in 1595. At the end of the 17th century, Philipp Wilhelm Christoph von Nesselrode and his wife built a new house integrating just the chapel and the northern part of the original castle. The three-winged manor house and the big four-winged front house were built at this time. In the early 18th century, a French garden was installed in the north of the castle which is mainly intact today.
The last owner was Marie Countess of Nesselrode who died unmarried in 1920 and bequeathed the whole estate to the Rheinische Ritterschaft. In 1924, they transformed it into a charitable foundation for Cannonesses. Only parts of the original medieval buildings remain at the rear of the castle of today. The chapel is part of the original buildings incorporated into the present manor house. In 1990, the whole manor house was renovated from the outside and the original building was repainted in a light yellow colour.
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.