Monkodonja (Moncodogno) is a small hill at an altiture of 78 meters approximately 3-4 km south-east of Rovinj (Rovigno) on which are the remains of an ancient, pre-Roman town - more specifically, a Bronze age castelliere (hillfort) that was occupied circa 1800-1200 B.C. The site has one outer wall with e zig-zag entrances, one inner wall for a so-called Acropolis with a modest palace and normal habitations between defensive walls that are  km long, 3 m wide and more than 3 m high built out of stone blocks weighing more than a few tons. It is 30 meters deep, and a vertical cave is located just outside the northwest entrance. The site is believed to have served a ritualistic purpose.

There are traces on the site which suggest that the site may have been abandoned suddenly during the invasion of the Istri tribe. It is not yet excavated but thought to have a passage leading back to a fort. It looks promising for further discoveries based on findings at a similar cave in Slovenia. When it was photographed from the air decades ago, a circular structure revealed that there may have been a large ancient town there. Some buildings and walls were later discovered that suggest that the town may have been connected with the Mikene civilization. New findings are still being made.

Monkodonja is only one of the 350 hillforts that has been registered so far in Istria. Although the exploration and the cataloguing of the Istrian hillforts (castellieri) began at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, nothing was known about the existence of the Monkodonja hillfort Fort hill before 1953 when its remains were found by the curators of the Istrian Pula Archeological Museum, Boris Bacic and Branko Marusic.

Media articles:

• September 19, 2007 - Jantarne perle i ljudske kosti u opljačkanom grobu, Glas Istre
• September 24, 2003, "Moncodogno, patrimonio di tutta l'Europa", La Voce del Popolo (Italiano)
• September 22, 2003 - Monkodonji nagrada Europske unije za baštinu (Hrvatski) & Monkodonia (Moncodogno) Received the Heritage Award from the European Union, Novi list (Hrvatski)
• November 27, 1999 - Monkodonja - Istarska Mikena, Vjesnik (Hrvatski)