Chinchón Castle was preceded by an earlier castle built at the end of the 15th century which was destroyed by commoners in 1521 after a long siege. Chinchón Castle was built on the ruins of this earlier castle in the late 16th century by the third Earl of Chinchón, Don Diego Fernandez de Cabrera.
Chinchón Castle was built as a Renaissance castle with broad rectangular windows as aspects of a palatial building. Its thick walls with sloping foundations and its moat covered by a drawbridge, made that it still looked like a fortress.
At the beginning of the 18th century, during the War of Spanish Succession, the castle was looted and abandoned. One century later it was burned by a Polish brigade fighting for the French during the War of Independence.
In the last part of the last century, Chinchón Castle was home to a famous bodega. At present the castle stands empty, awaiting repairs and a fitting form of use. It can not be visited.
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.