Church of St. Donatus

Church of St. Donatus tickets: which one to buy

Saint Donatus is no longer a church; it is a monument and a concert hall, and it is ticketed, cheaply, with the ticket usually sold together with entry to the neighbouring cathedral bell tower. Buy both. The building stands directly on the Roman forum of Zadar, so the paving, columns and inscriptions around it are part of the visit and cost nothing. Walking tours of the peninsula cover the forum, this church, the cathedral and the modern installations at the tip in about ninety minutes.

The reason to plan more carefully is music: the acoustics inside are exceptional and a summer festival of early music has been held here since the 1960s, with tickets sold separately and worth arranging a night around. Cruise passengers arrive mid-morning and the forum fills; the first hour after opening is the quiet one. The cathedral tower next door is a separate climb of about 180 steps and gives the wider view.

Visiting Church of St. Donatus: what to see

The church was begun in the late eighth century and finished in the ninth, and it is the largest pre-Romanesque building in Croatia. Bishop Donatus, who led embassies to both Constantinople and Charlemagne, is credited with it, which explains the shape: a tall cylinder with three apses and a gallery running round the inside above an ambulatory, a plan that echoes the imperial chapel at Aachen and, behind that, San Vitale in Ravenna.

It stands twenty-seven metres high and is built with almost no ornament, the walls plain and the construction frankly rough. Much of the stone was taken directly from the Roman forum it sits on, and Roman altars, column drums and carved inscriptions are visible built into the base, still legible. The interior is empty, which suits it; the space is what you have come to see. The gallery above the ambulatory is reached by a stone stair and gives a view down into the empty drum.

Church of St. Donatus opening hours and the best time to go

Opening is daily in the season with shorter hours in spring and autumn and closure for parts of the winter, so check if you are visiting outside summer. Morning light falls through the high windows into the empty drum and is the best time to be inside. The forum outside is floodlit at night and is a pleasant place to sit. The festival of early music in July and August is the highlight of the year here.

Zadar fills with ferry traffic in summer and empties completely in January. The sea organ and the solar installation at the point of the peninsula are ten minutes away and are best at sunset, which in Zadar is a local institution. Twenty minutes inside the church is enough, and longer on the forum than you would expect. Concert tickets are sold at the tourist office on the forum and at the door on the night.