BASILICA OF ST. DONATUS (CRKVA SV. DONATA)

This major Croatian church is dedicated to St. Donatus, bishop of Zadar in the early ^9th century. Adjoining the early Christian cathedral and the bishop's palace, the basilica retains its original Byzantine circular plan. Like many buildings constructed in the West during this period, the church's foundations are built from cut stone, column fragments and shafts, as well as Roman capitals found by the builders in and around the forum. Of exemplary architectural sobriety, the building reaches 27 m in height and comprises two storeys, held up by six massive pillars and two columns around the central hall.

Comparable to the churches built by Christian emperors (Justinian in Ravenna and Charlemagne in Aachen), with a monumental baptistery, the basilica symbolized the power of Zadar during the High Middle Ages. But in the ^6th century, a terrible earthquake destroyed this unique ensemble and the surrounding districts, plunging the city into a long period of misery and oblivion. The reconstruction was exemplary, and even today, the acoustics in this perfect cylinder are exceptional.

A festival of early and classical music is held here every year (mid-July to mid-August). During the summer months, when night falls, images from medieval iconography are projected to music on the colonnade's interior walls.