Pollena took its name from the cult of Apollo, who had an important temple here in the Roman and pre-Roman ages.

The baths of an ancient Roman villa were discovered at Masseria De Carolis in Pollena Trocchia in 1988 and subsequently exposed.

Before the Roman colonisation, this area was probably inhabited by Italic peoples like Samnites and Oscans.

), and so was part of the community that continued after the earlier eruption and recovered better than the territories to the south.

[4] The site was first discovered during construction of apartment blocks but the builders tried to destroy it as a hindrance to their work.