Montenuovo is the last volcano born in Europe. It is a symbol of the vitality of the Phlegraean Fields, and proof of how the land evolves, as a result of violent phenomenon of the nature.
Montenuovo, with its 180 meters high, rises in the center of the Gulf of Pozzuoli, and with its eruption in 1538 changed the morphology of the territory. Its birth lasted a week, in which erupted three times, destroying the Tripergole village and other archaeological remains from the Imperial era, closing the connection between Averno Lake and the sea and decreasing the surface of Lucrino Lake up to 90%.
And yet it was one of the less violent eruption in the Phlegraean Fields!
Today Montenuovo is a naturalistic area in the municipality of Pozzuoli, where a lot of different environments alternate. The biggest part of the hill is covered up by pine forest, while the west side, which leads to the Averno lake, keeps a dense holm oakes’ forest.
The bottom of the crater, where happens the phenomenon of “vegetational inversion”, is characterized by a vegetation typical of the wet areas, which becomes Mediterranean vegetation climbing up the slopes of the hill in direction of the top, instead drier.
The most fascinating ambient is surely that one of the fumarole, where it is possible to enjoy all the Gulf of Pozzuoli and where the landscape is marked by the vulcanic activity, which allows only the strongest and more adaptable plants to survive in such a difficult environment.
Monte Nuovo
