Boscoreale

Boscoreale
Comune
Metropolitan City of Naples

Municipal park

Coat of arms

Boscoreale within the Province of Naples
Boscoreale

Location of Boscoreale in Italy

Coordinates: 40°46′N 14°29′E / 40.767°N 14.483°E / 40.767; 14.483
Country Italy
Region Campania
Frazioni Cangiani, Marchesa, Marra, Passanti, Pellegrini
Government
 • Mayor Giuseppe Balzano
Area
 • Total 11.28 km2 (4.36 sq mi)
Elevation 65 m (213 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 27,457
 • Density 2,400/km2 (6,300/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Boschesi
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 80041
Dialing code 081
Saint day July 16
Website Official website

Boscoreale Italian pronunciation: [boskoreˈaːle] is an Italian comune and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 27,457 in 2011.[1] Located in the Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio, under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, it is known for the fruit and vineyards of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio. There is also a fine Vesuvian lava stone production.

History

Female bust of a silver dish (one of a matching pair) from the 1st Century Boscoreale Treasure on display in the British Museum.[2]
Roman fresco from Boscoreale, 43-30 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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 several museums, including the Louvre and the British Museum.

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 Antiquarium of Boscoreale was founded in 1991 by the Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei thanks to the finds from Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae, Terzigno, and Boscoreale and to a didactic apparatus.

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.

Geography

The municipality is part of Naples metropolitan area, and borders with Boscotrecase, Poggiomarino, Pompei, Scafati (SA), Terzigno, and Torre Annunziata. It counts the hamlets (frazioni) of Cangiani, Marchesa, Marra, Passanti, and Pellegrini.

Demographics

Art and Culture

Sources

References

  1. 1 2 (Italian) Source: Istat 2011
  2. ↑ British Museum Collection

External links

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