City of Motovun
City of Motovun is part of the Tentative list of Croatia in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
Motovun is a hillside medieval town that grew up on the site of an ancient city called Castellieri. Its town walls have been well-preserved. The late-Renaissance church of St. Stephen is its most notable monument, which holds Venetian sculptures, paintings and other artwork.
Map of City of Motovun
Load mapThe coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.
Community Reviews
Andrew_Kerr
If you're staying on the Istrian coast then an excursion to Motovun (30-40 minutes away) makes for an enjoyable couple of hours. My suggestion would be look for a few other interesting hilltop villages and make a trip combining them.
The problem with Motovun is its size, it's a very small village and once you have walked the defensive walls, stopped in the village square for a drink and mooched around one or two of the many shops selling local wine, you're struggling to keep yourself interested.
Possibly the best thing about the village is view from the approach road, where the walled village sites magnificently on top of the hill and surveys all around it.
A word of warning for the less mobile, cars, busses and taxis are not allowed up the final stretch that takes you into the village and it's quite steep and, being cobbled, quite uneven too.
It is lovely, just don't expect too much.
Philipp Peterer
Motovun is a nice little hilltop town in the heart of Istria. The town is Venetian, with complete town walls around the tiny core as the main feature. You can walk the walls for a fee and enjoy the views. The specialty seems to be truffles. There are a few shops selling them.
If you drive to Porec from Italy and want to avoid buying the vignette, Motovun is actually on route between the Slovenian border and Porec, just 45 minutes from Porec. There is a huge parking lot at the bottom of the hill. For an additional fee, you can use a shuttle bus to the hilltop. I opted for walking instead. It is a steep but nice walk through the town. All in all a nice detour to spend a few hours, but nothing that would be worth an entire trip.
Tony
Motovun is a nice little village on a hill. The road that passes Motovun (and other hill villages as Buzet and Roc) is surprisingly flat along a river. Down the hill you have to buy a parking ticket at the office and than drive up the hill for about 2,5 km.The parking was limited, even that this period of year (april 2015) is low season. There was however a big amount of people. The view from the plain to the village is very nice, also the view from the village to the plains.
The attraction there is to walk on the walls around the town.
Read more from Tony here.
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Site Info
- Full Name
- City of Motovun
- Country
- Croatia
- Added
- 2007
- Type
- Cultural
- Categories
- Structure - Military and Fortifications Urban landscape - Medieval European
- Link
- By ID
Site History
2007 Added to Tentative List
Site Links
Visitors
41 Community Members have visited.