Pollena Trocchia

Pollena Trocchia, a municipality near Naples of Samnite-Etruscan origin, hosts a significant Roman bath complex at Masseria De Carolis, dating to the late 1st to early 2nd century AD. The complex comprises ten rooms on two floors, including praefurnia (furnaces), heated bath chambers with suspensurae (raised floors on pilae for hot air circulation), a cistern, and a charcoal depot. The site was partially buried by the 472 AD eruption of Vesuvius. Inhabitants returned and reoccupied the upper level before a final burial by the 505 or 512 eruption. Systematic excavations began in 2007 under the Apolline Project.