Church of Saint Donatus
Ninth-century rotunda on the Roman forum, prized for acoustics and its summer concert season.
Saint Donatus is a circular pre-Romanesque church of the ninth century, built on the paving of the Roman forum of Iader and using its stone. Columns, altars and inscribed blocks taken from the forum are visible in the foundations and walls, one of the clearest examples of Roman spolia anywhere on the Adriatic. The rotunda is about twenty-seven metres high, with a ring of three apses and an upper gallery reached by a stair; it lost its liturgical use in the early nineteenth century.
Because the bare stone drum produces a long, even reverberation, the building has been used for music rather than worship for decades. Since 1961 it has been the principal venue of the Musical Evenings at Saint Donatus, an international festival of early and classical music held in high summer, and it is also hired for recordings and one-off concerts. Outside concert dates the church is open for sightseeing and is managed by the Archaeological Museum in Zadar, whose building stands alongside.
Highlights
- Pre-Romanesque rotunda standing directly on the Roman forum paving
- Roman columns and inscribed blocks reused in the walls and foundations
- Long reverberation that made it a noted venue for early music
- Home of the Musical Evenings at Saint Donatus festival since 1961
