About the museum:
The Zadar Archaeological Museum was founded in 1830. It operates over the area of northern Dalmatia from the Krka River to the island of Rab. It collects and examines remains, and investigates the development of culture from the beginnings, i.e. from the Old Stone Age (about 2 million years ago) to the Early Middle Ages (beginning of the 12th century). The permanent displays of the museum are divided into prehistoric, Roman and medieval or Early Croatian. The prehistoric material is located on the 2nd floor, and is divided according to periods, showing in chronological order the development of life and culture in the area. The exhibition of the Early Middle Ages is on the ground floor, where there is also the reception desk for entrance tickets and souvenir sales. St Donat’s (Rotunda of the Holy Trinity) was put up in the quadrant between cathedral and the seat of the eparchy. It was built during the second half of the 8th century and extended in the first half of the 9th. The pre-Romanesque form of its architecture reflects the complex cultural and political in the Adriatic area in the middle of the 8th century. Such were the merits of Bishop Donat that in the 15th century this monument (where the bishop’s remains are kept and his cult celebrated) was in the 15th century called by the name of St Donat; during the time of the rule of the Austrians in Dalmatia it was deconsecrated. Today St Donat’s is a symbol of the city of Zadar. Inside the church, almost the original form of the pre-Romanesque rotunda has been preserved; with its elementary forms and its mighty structure, it holds the attention with the beauty of the space, the refinement of the architectural composition of simple forms and its harmonious proportions, and is counted among the very peaks of the art of architecture in medieval Europe.
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