The famous view of Motovun, emblematic of Istria’s interior © Istra Photonet
Motovun is without any doubt the best-known and most photographed of central Istria’s hill towns.
Motovun (Italian Montona), without any doubt the best-known and most photographed of central Istria’s hill towns, sits atop a 277m flat-topped hill on one side of the Mirna Valley. Once the site of a prehistoric hill fort, and a Roman settlement from at least the late 2nd century AD, when clay was extracted from the surrounding area for the production of amphorae, Motovun is first mentioned in a historical document from 804. The main thing to see in Motovun is the town itself – a walled Gothic and Renaissance citadel draped across the top of a flat-topped hill.