In times gone by, builders often recycled materials from previous structures in their own projects. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Church of St Donat in Zadar, Croatia.
St Donat (which coincidentally is circular, like a donut) was built in the 9th Century by the Byzantines. It was constructed on, and to a large extent out of, the earlier Roman Forum, which predates it by around 1000 years.
The church rests directly on the paving stones of the Roman Forum.
Running around the entire church is a balcony, which was once the Women’s Gallery.

Looking down from the Women’s Gallery, it’s easy to see how St Donat rests on the original paving of the Roman Forum
Although the entire interior of the church is now painted cream, complimenting the stone from which it is constructed, the walls were probably originally decorated with colourful frescos.
I was surprised to discover that St Donat hasn’t been used as a church for over 200 years, since 1797, although it still hosts music performances to this day.
Expand the minds of you and your children by travelling the World with Jaspa’s Journey adventure novels! The first two, The Great Migration and The Pride of London, are now available in both paperback and ebook formats from Speaking Volumes! The third instalment, Jaspa’s Waterloo, is coming soon. Click here for more information.
Jaspa’s Journey: Perfect for Kids 8 – 80!
This post was inspired by this photo themes of Cream from Ailsa of Where’s My Backpack? and All One Color from Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.
Wonderful post for all these challenges. 😀
Thanks, Cee!
Such an interesting old church building. It looks huge! I like how they re-used parts of the older structures to build this one. 🙂
It’s actually not that big around, Barbara, but it is fascinating!
That it is! Thanks for showing the photos, and telling a little bit about it. 🙂
Great post! Thanks for sharing all those wonderful images. 😀
You’re welcome, Cristina! Glad you enjoyed them!
Awesome architectural shots. That is a lot of white stone.
That it is, Joseph!
🙂
Thats no column! Anyone can see that it’s the cogwheels in the bottom part of the spaceship that brought the ancients to Earth!!
All hail the Ancients!!!!!
Death to the unbelievers!!!!!!!!!!!
/Björn
Sorry Björn, my mistake! 🤔
St. Donatus is an interesting building with an interesting story and you exposed it well in your article. We have been to Zadar last year, and we loved the town a lot.
We were on a car trip to Croatia and this was our 4th stop of the trip.
Here is also my article on the trip and also the one about the things we visited in Zadar, would love to have your follow also and maybe you’ll find some inspiration for your next travel too:
https://egodiary.com/2017/04/10/croatia-by-car/
https://egodiary.com/2017/06/07/three-symbols-of-zadar-greeting-the-sun-the-first-sea-organ-in-the-world-and-the-historic-churches/
Happy travels,
Julia
Thanks for you kind comments, Julia. I enjoyed your post, too!