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Pula(po͞o`lä), Ital. Pola, city (2011 pop. 57,460), W Croatia, on the Adriatic and at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. A major seaport and an industrial center, it has shipyards, docks, and varied manufactures. Captured (178 B.C.) by the Romans, it was destroyed by Augustus, but was rebuilt by him and named Pietas Julia. It passed to Venice in 1148, but in 1379 it was taken and destroyed by the Genoese. However, it remained a Venetian possession until the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) transferred it to Austria. Under Austrian rule Pula became the chief naval base and arsenal of the Hapsburg empire. The city was ceded to Italy after World War I and to Croatia, then a constitutent republic of Yugoslavia, after World War II. Pula has many well-preserved Roman ruins, notably a large amphitheater, the Porta Aurea (a triumphal arch of the 1st cent. B.C.), and the temple of Augustus and Roma (1st cent. A.D.).
(also Pola), a city in northwestern Yugoslavia, in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, on the Istrian Peninsula. Population, 50,000(1974). Pula, a port on the Adriatic, has a shipbuilding industry, producing tankers with a displacement of more than 200,000 tons deadweight. Other industries include woodworking and the production of cement, glass, chemicals, textiles, leather goods, and footwear. The city also has tobacco and fish-canning industries.
Pula is noted for its remains of ancient Roman architecture, among which are a triumphal arch dating from 29–27 B.C., an amphitheater from the first century A.D. and ruins of municipal fortifications and villas from the first and second centuries A.D. A mausoleum and the Church of St. Nicholas, both built in the sixth century, are also noteworthy. Pula is a popular tourist site.