I have long entertained my friends with stories about Motovun’s medieval walls, which could come handy once climate change takes its bite and marauders of every description start roaming the earth (“With a Little Bit of Savvy,” September 8, 2006). Yesterday evening I talked about the walls with Ljubo Miščević from the Architecture Faculty at the University of Zagreb, who runs the Summer School of Architecture in Motovun. I suggested that an interesting exercise for his students could be the transformation of the hilltown into a fortification once again. The exercise would demand quite a bit of thought. Several gates need to be rebuilt. Houses leaning against the walls need to be brought down. Subsidiary walls also need to be rebuilt. Trees growing around the Motovun hill need to be felled. All this needs to be accomplished while conserving both materials and labor. And it needs much thought about defense as such. If an additional requirement would be to accomplish everything in a fortnight, for the marauders have just crossed Učka to the east and are marching west, the exercise would become quite exciting. This morning I heard from Ljubo that he was considering my suggestion quite seriously. He may propose it to the summer school students as early as next year. After a few summers, we may well have Motovun’s defense strategy considered from every plausible angle.

Addendum (August 14, 2015)

This year’s summer school is over by now, and both teachers and students are already gone, but Motovun’s defense strategy has not been addressed at all. When I mentioned it in passing to the assembled students in a few words of welcome on the day of their arrival, they looked at me without comprehension. And Miščević just giggled for all to see. I did not expect that my suggestion would fly any time soon, anyhow. Although I did hope that he would talk about it with the students, hope is only hope. The future is bright, though. Assuming that the summer school is still around in a decade or so, the defense strategy of the hilltown will surely be embraced by both teachers and students. The need for it will be palpable enough by then, I reckon.