S. DONATO
39
Orseolo, Zara was only eighty years out of the possession of Venice.” The recent Treaty of Rapallo, after the French and Austrian occupations which followed the fall of the Republic, has restored Zara to Italy, the heir of S. Marco.
  Of the many churches of Zara some were already in existence at the time of the Fourth Crusade. Perhaps the oldest, and in many ways the most interesting, is the church of S. Donato, now used as a museum, and therefore comparatively safe, after a stormy and dangerous past as a warehouse, a military store and a wine-cellar. It stands close to the cathedral, by whose out-build-ings, Baptistery and Sacristy, it is almost hidden. It can best be reached by a narrow passage which leads from the Piazza delle Erbe, along whose walls are ranged inscriptions and sculpture rescued from various sites, among them a splendid Lion of S. Marco, recently brought from Sebenico, where he ran some risk of injury at the hands of hot-headed Jugoslavs. S. Donato was originally known as Ihe Holy Trinity. It is recorded by Constantine l'orphyrogennetos, so its disputed date must be earlier than the date of his book (a.d. 948-952). It is, as the Emperor describes it, a round or vaulted church (eiXr/fMaTiicos), reminding one of Charlemagne’s