Jozo Brandić is a thoughtful man. When Motovun’s crumbling walls come up, he has a simple advice: “Follow the water.” When anything else having to do with the town’s decrepit infrastructure comes up, he always offers the same advice. There is much to it, too. From the area enclosed by the town walls downward, the atmospheric water used to be collected in cisterns. The surplus was channeled into the sewer, as was the water used up in the houses. The clean and dirty water used to be prudently kept apart. Although the entire water management system was built in stone, it was put together with stunning ingenuity. And it was maintained for centuries with meticulous care. When drinking water was brought to the town in pipes, the old cisterns were gradually abandoned. The sewer slowly fell into disrepair, and much of it got plugged up. Atmospheric water now rushes every which way, eroding old walls on its way. As of late, there appears to be much more of it, as well. Climate change bodes ill for our town. Not only houses are threatened, as well as so many walls supporting gardens and roads, but the town walls, too. Everywhere it goes, water is washing the mortar away. And much of it was not that far from mud, anyway. By and by, the whole town will crumble into a heap of smallish stones from which it was built centuries ago. Follow the water, indeed. Or else.