In addition to the Old Christian complex of Bishop Euphrasius in Poreč, the Basilica of St. Mary Formosa is the most significant monument of sacral palaeo-Byzantine art in Croatia. Biographer Agnellus from the first half of the 9th century recorded in "Vita S. Maximiniani" in "Liber Pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis", that the Istrian Maximianus (546-556), Justinian’s protégé, a native of Vistar, present day Veštar near Rovinj, ruled wisely as Archbishop of Ravenna and with time became the key figure of politics of the Empire in northern Adriatic. After he had erected magnificent edifices in Ravenna, including the basilicas S. Vitale (singled out by name and figure in the imperial suite on a wall mosaic) and S. Apollinare in Classe, he decided to build the basilica of St. Mary in the city in which he had served as a young deacon.