Boscoreale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Comune di Boscoreale | |
|---|---|
 Municipal coat of arms |
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| Country |  Italy |
| Region | Campania |
| Province | Naples (NA) |
| Elevation | 65 m (213 ft) |
| Area | 11.28 km² (4 sq mi) |
| Population (as of December 31, 2004) | |
| - Total | 27,476 |
| - Density | 2,436/km² (6,309/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET, UTC+1 |
| Coordinates | |
| Gentilic | Boschesi |
| Dialing code | 081 |
| Postal code | 80041 |
| Frazioni | Marchesa, Pellegrini, Cangiani, Marra |
| - Day | July 16 |
Boscoreale is a comune and town in the province of Naples, Campania, located in the Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, known for the fruit and vineyards of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio.
The neighborhood Monte Bursaccio, which was overcome by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE that obliterated and preserved its better-known neighbors, Pompeii and Herculaneum, is famous for the frescoes of its aristocratic villas, excavated before World War I. A hoard of Roman silver and coins that had been hurriedly stashed in a cistern for protection at the time of the eruption was also recovered in Boscoreale in 1895, and divided among museums, including the Louvre.
Boscoreale, about a kilometer north of Pompeii of which it was an expansive, more rural outlying suburb, was notable in antiquity for having numerous aristocratic country villas and was preserved as a hunting park - hence its name, meaning "Royal Grove" - by the kings of Naples.
The villa of P. Fannius Synistor (see Villa Boscoreale) was built and decorated shortly after mid-first century BC. The quality of its frescoes seems to have preserved them from changes in fashion, before the villa was entombed in the eruption.
The neighboring Boscotrecase yielded some elite works of art to excavators at the same time, in particular at the Villa of Agrippa Postumus, also known as the Imperial Villa or the Villa of Augusta.
[edit] References
- Baratte, François (1986). Le Trésor d'orfèvrerie romaine de Boscoreale. Paris: Musée de Louvre. ISBN 2-7118-2048-3.
[edit] External links
- Comune di Boscoreale official site
- Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii: the main rustic villas
- Herculaneum/Pompeii/Stabiae Website
- AD79 Year of Destruction Website
- Frescos from the house of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Fresco section from the villa of Fannius Sinistor, Boscoreale (Archaeological Museum Naples
- Cubiculum from the house of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Boscoreale treasure (Musée du Louvre)
