  Lovelock gravity in $D$-dimensional space-times is considered adopting
Cartan's structure equations. In this context, we find out exact solutions in
cosmological and spherically symmetric backgrounds. In the latter case, we also
derive horizons and the corresponding Bekenstein--Hawking entropies. Moreover,
we focus on the topological Chern--Simons theory, providing exact solutions in
5 dimensions. Specifically, it is possible to show that Anti-de Sitter
invariant Chern--Simons gravity can be framed within Lovelock--Zumino gravity
in 5 dimensions, for particular choices of Lovelock parameters.
