There was a prehistoric Bronze Age hillfort on the hillock around 2 km from the sea, presenting the contours of circular dry-stone walls, largely destroyed or damaged by a quarry used until the mid-20th century. The research undertaken since 2014 unearthed numerous fragments of prehistoric pottery, although no remnants of Bronze Age building structures were found – they were destroyed during the construction of a Roman residential-farm building in the 1st century BC. The Roman villa on Monte Ricco may have been built even before the establishment of the Roman colony in Poreč (Parentium), which bears witness to a very early Roman settlement on the western Istrian coast. Research has so far identified only parts of the building, the best preserved being the water cistern measuring 11 x 7 m, partly hewn into the bedrock, originally covered by three-barrel vaults resting on a system of a pair of pillared arches. Rainwater was harvested in the cistern from the roofs of the surrounding building covering the area of around 50 x 60 m. The remnants of the cistern have been conserved and its construction details reveal the skills of Roman architects shown in shaping the cistern by keeping the water at a sufficiently low temperature to avoid its spoilage.
There were rooms around the central courtyard with the cistern, perhaps partly on the first floor as well. Residential and bathing areas were situated in the northern part, and the high status of the owner, a wealthy Roman who chose the hillock as the construction site of his residence building, is made evident by the remnants of wall paintings (frescoes) and mosaic floors. Besides geometric and plant motifs of the frescoes in the room north of the cistern, a fragment of a fresco with a human figure was found, suggesting luxurious interior decoration of the building. Moreover, several fragments of terracotta reliefs showing a chariots, parts of the architectural decoration of the eaves probably in the courtyard of the building, are unique finds in Istria. The villa also incorporated outbuildings (stables, magazines, workshops). Remnants of a probable blacksmith’s workshop were found in the north-western part of the building, and there were presumably other amenities essential to everyday life on the estate. Numerous fragments of ancient pottery (the most notable being specimens of fine ware, oil lamps, and particularly amphorae used for wine imports from Italy) and other finds (metal objects, glass, fragments of destroyed mosaics) give evidence of the intensity of life on Monte Ricco, which did not last long because the building was abandoned by the end of the 1st century AD. However, the cistern was apparently used as a shepherd’s shelter for a period of time, whereupon the cistern vault began caving in. The value of the site was reconsidered in 1963 when a modern water tank was built and further devastated parts of prehistoric and ancient structures.
