Motovun is a town and fortress of the 12th-13th centuries in Istria. The symbol of the city is a lion with a closed book, a legacy of the Venetian era in Istria. This ancient symbol means that the city was founded in the year when Venice was at war. The city is located on a hill, at the foot of which the Mirna River flows. To the very top of the hill, to the central square of the city, there is the longest staircase in Istria - it has 1052 steps.

In the Motovun Forest, which has been a nature reserve since 1963 and stretches for tens of kilometers along the riverbed, truffles, both black and Istra white, grow. Every October, a festival dedicated to the collection of truffles is held in Motovun. The Motovun forest is the only untouched floodplain forest in the Mediterranean. In total, there are still two similar territories left on the globe - on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and the remains of oak forests on the border of Albania and Montenegro.