“Being sent to Poveglia was a death sentence”
Anisha Parmar, Historyofyesterday.com
The Bare Bones
Located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon sit the Island of Poveglia. The island itself is divided into two parts and first appears in historical records in the year 421 when people fled to the island to escape the Barbarians. The island has residents up until 1379. The people then fled due to the invasion of Venice be the Genoan fleet.
In 1527 the island was offered to a group of Monks who flat out refused the offer. From 1645 on the Government built 5 forts to protect the entrances to the island. Only 1 of these remains standing today.
Beginning in 1776 the island fell under the derestriction of the public health office and became a prime check point for all goods and people entering Venice. In 1793, two ships carried cases of the plague and for over a hundred years the island was used as a quarantine site (1793-1814) for those infected with the plague and other diseases.
Then in 1922 the remaining buildings became a mental hospital. In 1968 the hospital closed and sat vacant.
In 1994 the state held an auction (99-year lease) which would remain state property in order to raise funds. The hoped the buyer would turn the island into a luxury hotel of all things! There was a bid place by an investor but his claim was denied as they stated his plans “didn’t meet all requirements”.
In 2015 a private group was hoping to raise a very large sum of money in order to transform the island into a public space which included, a marina, study areas, restaurant, Public Park and hostel. However, the island still sits vacant.
The primary surviving structures on the island include; a church, hospital, cabana, bell tower as well as housing and administrative buildings for the former staff.
Visiting the island is now strictly prohibited.
Darker History
During the plague, the island had more the 160,000 infected people. During this time, the conditions on Poveglia was horrendous. Evidence states that the sick were often 3-4 to a bed and the air reeked of death and those still dying. There was no hope and no escape.
The worst part if there can be anything worse, was the workers there often mistook those who were too ill to move and those who were already dead and these victims were then buried or burned alive.
If you were suspected of being ill, you were deposited on the island and left to die. Those who passed there were burned in mass graves around the island. Many say that the soil is made up of 50% human remains.
It was at this time the Venetians started calling Poveglia “The Island of Ghosts”.
In 1922 when the island became a mental hospital, those who were suspected of any illness or mental defect where immediately sent there. It was said the Doctor there was an inhumane butcher. He was known to torture, abuse and kill many of his patients. People on the mainland reported that while travelling the waters you could hear the screams coming from the island.
This so-called doctor was known to believe that lobotomies were a great way to combat mental illness and often performed these procedures against the patient’s will and without crude instruments such as chisels, hammers and even drills.
He was said to have taken his “special patients” to the bell tower where he performed various torturous procedures.
Later he jumped, or was pushed off the bell tower and fell to his death. The legend has even gone as far as saying that several of his patients forced the doctor up into the tower and bricked him inside, therefore his only escape would be to jump. A nurse who witnessed the fall claimed that he survived the initial fall but was swallowed up by a mist at the bottom and that is what finalized his death. Many believe that he was driven mad by the ghost of the people who he murdered while performing his sick experiments.
People travelling by the island claim they can hear bells coming from the tower.
In 1968, a family purchased the Island, planning on making a holiday retreat there. They did not make it all the way through the night. They fled the island claiming that an angry spirit tried to rip the face of their daughter off. When it was sold to a new owner……then shortly after yet another owner….. Both claimed they could not spend time on the island. That the energy was so morbid and pressing that they couldn’t stay for long. Strange sounds combined with ghostly encounters upon ever visit has caused every buyer to flee and then sell.
In 2016, the Venetian Firefighters had to rescue 6 Americans who trespassed onto the island. The men claimed they heard screams coming from the island and had to extract the would-be ghost hunters from Poveglia. Many were unable to speak about their encounters.
These legends have only fueled the needs of many to seek out the tormented spirits on the Island. Those who managed not to get caught trespassing have stated hearing scream, footsteps and seen shadows moving along the walls in the building of the old asylum. Various psychics who visited the island described the energy there as malevolent and was so intense that many will never set foot there again.
To this day charred bones still wash up on shore of the mainland and Fisherman hate getting too close to the island for fear that bones get picked up in their nets. Many locals claim that you can still hear screams coming from Poveglia.
Sales continue to fall through and one thing is certain, death and madness await those who dare to trespass onto the remains of Poveglia Island.
SOURCES:
Wikipedia.org/wiki/poveglia
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