Villa Boscoreale

Other Villas in Boscoreale

Many other Roman villas were discovered in the vicinity, often by "treasure" hunters towards the end of the 19th century after which they were reburied, including notably the villas:

in "d'Acunzo property", Piazza. Stazione FF.SS.

Villa Regina

This rustic villa was discovered more recently, in 1977, buried under approximately 26 feet (about 8 meters) of compressed volcanic ash and material from pyroclastic flow, later topped by material from daily activity through the centuries. Unlike the villas plundered and reburied by treasure hunters, Villa Regina was treated as an archaeological discovery and therefore has been preserved in its complete state. The villa is a comfortable working farm rather than a luxurious estate that others nearby were. Nonetheless, an elegant central courtyard is colonnaded on three sides with columns of red and white stucco.

Large quantities of pottery and farm implements were found. Plaster casts of the original entrance doors were made from the hollow spaces left. A plaster cast of a pig found here and killed in the catastrophe was also made.

It also includes preserved parts of a wine press. Near the center of the villa is the wine cellar in which 18 dolia, of total capacity 10,000 liters, were buried for storing the must from the adjoining press.

An unusual find was an oil lamp dating from the 3-5th c. AD showing that the place was tunnelled into in the later Roman era.

Pollen analysis conducted at Villa Regina identified various species of cultivated plant life. Tree varieties included Birch, Hazelnut, Cypress, Ash, Walnut, Pine and Olive. Flowers at the Villa included Anemone, Borage, Dianthus, Amaranth, Aster, Sedge, Geranium, Buttercup, Mallow. Pollen samples additionally confirmed the cultivation of grapes at Villa Regina, likely pressed into wine on site. The holes in the ground left by the roots of the Roman vines were found and vines have again been planted in them.

Villa of P. Fannius Synistor

Although the villa was of relatively modest size compared to others in the area and had no atrium, pool or sculpture collection, its frescoes were exceptional in their beauty and quality.

Evidence in tablets and graffiti shows that the house was probably built around 40-30 BC. The villa was privately discovered, excavated, partially dismantled and reburied in 1900.

The villa had three stories, complete with a bath suite and an underground passage to a stable and agricultural buildings, the latter not excavated. The central ground floor of the living quarters consisted of over thirty rooms or enclosures surrounding a peristyle. The building featured an impressive main entrance approached by five broad steps leading to a colonnaded forecourt rather than the typical atrium.

Ownership of the villa has been contested. While there is no doubt P. Fannius Synistor did reside there, excavated bronze tablets show another name, that of Lucius Herennius Florus. Many things were marked with seals in ancient Rome to indicate possession. It is believed that since the tablet with the letters "L. HER. FLO" on it was found inside the villa, it must serve as a mark of villa ownership. These two are the only confirmed owners in the early 1st century BC and 1st century AD, though there may have been earlier owners.

The Villa is most notable for its works of art, especially its highly skilled buon fresco paintings, said to be the highest quality Roman frescoes ever found and which are now scattered around the world after being auctioned following removal. …

Villa della Pisanella

The villa was first unearthed by the landowners over several seasons from 1876.

In 1894 excavations brought to light a villa rustica covering 1000 m2 with clearly defined residential sector with baths and a pars rustica with farm buildings and warehouses. The breeding of farmyard animals was practiced and most of the rooms on the ground floor were used for processing and conservation of oil, wine and cereals.

The majority of portable belongings seems to have still been in place, though some objects were unlikely to be in the locations of their intended use: while many chests and wardrobes held stored furnishings, some material may have been brought in for temporary storage, such as two bronze bathtubs decorated with lion heads handles that had no obvious destination in the bathing complex, one of which even being too large to fit through the last door. In a large chest were forty keys and silver tableware; in the kitchen the skeleton of a dog on a chain; in the stable the bones of several tethered horses, one of which had managed to wriggle out and escape. In the olive pressing-room (torcularium) the first three human skeletons came to light, including that of a woman, possibly the mistress of the house, who wore splendid gold earrings with topaz jewels, and as the subject of much romanticization has been called the last owner, Maxima, which is a name written on many of the silver vessels. Some have speculated that the previous owner of the villa was L. Caecilius Lucundus, a banker from Pompeii, who inherited the wealth of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Campania, who was the father of the hypothetical Maxima.

In 1895 in the torcularium the magnificent so-called Boscoreale Treasure was found in a chest and consisted of 102 items: silver tableware, bracelets, earrings, rings, a double gold chain. A thousand gold coins were still in the remains of a leather bag. At the time of the eruption it was probably one of the safest rooms in the villa where the owner gave the order to a trusted man to hide it for better times. All the treasures were smuggled out to France via the Rothschild Family and sold.

The excavations of the villa were resumed in 1896 by Angiolo Pasqui.