The neighbourhood of Monte Bursaccio which was overcome by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD that obliterated and preserved its better-known neighbours, 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 kilometre 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 neighbouring 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.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.