Church of St. Donatus Zadar
Church of St. Donatus in Zadar is one of the most famous buildings in Croatia and the symbol of the town of Zadar. If you are lucky enough to find an apartment, room or holiday house in Zadar, all roads will take you to the center of the city where the famous church of Bishop Donat is located. Donat lived in the 9th century, in times when the Catholic Church gained strength in these areas, wiping out the remnants of Roman polytheism. There was a Roman forum uppon which the Donat's church was erected, built into the foundations of the church, as well as many other remains of the Roman age. The Zadar area was inhabited by the prehistoric name Jadera, and the Romans captured it in the middle of the 2nd century. St. Donatus carried the name of the Holy Trinity in the beginning, jet was and remained one of the most significant examples of pre-Romanesque architecture throughout Europe. According to the type of construction, the church has a circular ground plan as well as numerous other buildings of the early Romanesque and Carolingian era. The special are its size, unusual cylindrical shape and double interior space, which have no direct predecessors. St. Donatus church in Zadar is 27 meters high and 22 meters wide. The interior of the church is marked by the monolithic columns that come from the Antique as the remains of the ruined Roman forum. The composition was built in old Croatian style of plaster and crushing stone. The church has not been echoing by the sound of the Holy Mass for a long time, but extraordinary acoustics will attract lovers of medieval and renaissance music, due to the famous Musical Evenings at St. Donatus which are held here every summer since 1960.
