The oldest part of Lovö Church has been dated back to the later part of the 12th century. According Berit Wallenberg it was built as early as the 11th century. It is also believed that an even older wooden church existed on this site. Church sermons are held in the church, normally once a month, and for certain Christian holidays.
The church is unusually small and narrow. It was extended to the east, first in the 13th and further in the 17th century. Churches built during this time were built with a weapons room, a foyer where people going to church had to lay down their arms before entering the church itself. This weapons house was demolished in 1798, and an entry was made in the west side of the attached church tower. There are also five Viking Age memorial runestones that are located outside the Lovö church.
The sanctuary of the church was created around 1670. The architect is believed to be Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, who was working on Drottningholm Palace around this same time. Inside the church are 30 gravestones, several of which belonged to people employed at Drottningholm palace. The interior was renovated in 2004.
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.