Motovun coat of arms boasts of five towers, but only one of them can be found within the walls of the medieval town. I have occasionally heard from the locals remaining in town that all the other four of them belonged to the churches surrounding the old castle although only two of the churches still in existence come with towers furnished with bells. A short while I ago, I learned from a book lent to me by Vida Ogorelec, a friend from Motovun as of a couple of years ago, that the four towers in question actually used to be part of the walls. This is Luigi Foscan’s book about Istrian medieval castles, and Motovun is among them.[1] According to the map of the town walls that can be found in the book, tower Franca was above my house to the west, tower Carrara was above Vida’s house to the south, and towers Grande and Leone were above the houses along Veli Jože’s lane to the north of the walls.[2] The tower by the church on the upper square is also shown on the map, but it has no name of its own. The only traces of the four towers are rectangular protrusions in town walls. Once upon a time, they must have towered high above the walls themselves. According to Vida, some of the locals claim that the stones from the four towers of old can now be found in the cobblestones of Motovun’s streets and squares. Now we know how to refortify the walls if and when the shit hits the fan (“With a Little Bit of Savvy,” September 8, 2006; and “Motovun’s Defense Strategy,” August 11, 2014). With some luck, the medieval town will become invincible once again. As Motovun coat of arms tells us, defense always comes first!

Footnote

1. I castelli medioevali dell’Istria, Trieste: Edizione Italo Svevo, 1992.

2. Op. cit., p. 263.