West of Naples, over the Posillipo, is Pozzuoli (28m/92ft; pop. 71,000), a port situated on the slopes of a tufa ridge projecting into the sea, on the edge of the area of volcanic hills known as the Phlegraean Fields. Founded in the sixth century B.C. by Greeks from Samos, it passed in the hands of the Romans in 318 B.C. and as Puteoli developed
into the principal Italian port for trade with Egypt and the East. In the old town, which is situated on a peninsula, is the cathedral of San Procolo (destroyed by fire in 1964; not open to the public), which was built on the site of a temple of the third-second century B.C. and has ancient columns. It contains the tomb of the composer Pergolesi (1710-36).
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