Vesuvius National Park (Italian: Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio) is an Italian national park centered on the active volcano Vesuvius, southeast from Naples. The park was founded on June 5, 1995, and covers an area of around 135 square kilometers all located within the Province of Naples.
It is centered on the active volcano and its most ancient (now inactive) crater, Monte Somma. It houses 612 plant species and 227 wildlife ones.
In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius, a stratovolcano located in the modern-day region of Campania, erupted, causing one of the deadliest eruptions in history. Vesuvius violently ejected a cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event gives its name to the Vesuvian type of volcanic eruption, characterised by columns of hot gases and ash reaching the stratosphere, although the event also included pyroclastic flows associated with Peléan eruptions.
The event destroyed several Roman towns and settlements in the area. Pompeii and Herculaneum, obliterated and buried underneath massive pyroclastic surges and ashfall deposits, are the most famous examples. Archaeological excavations have revealed much of the towns and the lives of the inhabitants, leading to the area becoming Vesuvius National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Boscoreale (Italian: [ˌbɔskoreˈaːle]; Neapolitan: Vuoscoriale; "Royal Grove") is an Italian comune (municipality) and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 25,939 in 2022. Located in the Vesuvius National Park, 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.