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A destroyed hospital on 18 acres of land called ‘Island of Death’ is experiencing a second life as a ‘dark tourism’ place.
Travelers are looking for Poveglia, located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, which was once a quarantine station and mass cemetery for more than 160,000 victims of the Black Plague.
According to legend, people were dragged to the island kicking and screaming if they showed even the slightest symptoms of the Black Death, and were sometimes burned alive in huge funeral pyres that lined the center.
A mental hospital was later opened on the island where, according to local accounts, a “mad” doctor performed lobotomies on patients before jumping from the asylum’s bell tower, which has since been sealed off.
The island was abandoned in 1986, but YouTubers venture to “the world’s most haunted island” to capture haunting footage and images of the forbidden location.
The 40-acre island off the coast of Venice harbors dark secrets from the past
Dark tourism is a trend where people venture to places historically associated with death and tragedy.
That can be genocide, murder, imprisonment, ethnic cleansing, war or natural or accidental disasters.
While Poveglia is banned from entering, YouTubers are taking the risk of capturing eerie images and images of the ruined buildings that were once filled with plague victims and the mentally ill.
The island of Poveglia is mentioned in documents dating back to the year 421 AD.
During the 9th century, the island was mainly inhabited by refugees from Padua and Este – both cities in Italy – mainly women and children fleeing barbarian invaders who devastated the mainland.
The refugees lived on the island until the 14th century when the area was abandoned – but then the plague hit Italy, which killed 75 percent of Europe’s population.
Venice exiled anyone with symptoms to Poveglia, which was a death sentence.
Fearing that the disease would continue to infect Italy, Poveglia was converted into a quarantine station for ships arriving in Venice.
However, the quarantine methods failed as patients were housed in overcrowded buildings that were unsanitary and poorly ventilated.
Giant funeral pyres stood in the center of the island, burning victims – some still alive.
Due to the nature of the disease, many of the sick who were sent to the island never returned.
Workers had to bury the bodies of the deceased on the island, and it is estimated that more than 160,000 people died and were buried on the island between the 18th and 19th centuries.
And visitors to the island believe that bumps in the ground are unmarked graves.
At the end of the 19th century, the mentally ill inhabitants of the area were transferred to an asylum in Poveglia, which was poorly built.
Located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, Poveglia was once a quarantine station and mass cemetery for bubonic plague victims
Located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, Poveglia was once a quarantine station and mass cemetery for bubonic plague victims.
Hospital beds are still in the rooms as a reminder of the victims who died on the island
It is rumored that in the 1930s a doctor performed strange experiments on the patients, and eventually the doctor went mad and threw himself from the high bell tower of the asylum.
Although the bell in the tower was removed decades ago, locals still claim to hear the chimes echoing from the lonely island.
Dark Arts TV channel posted their trip to the island two months ago, which involved them conducting a paranormal investigation.
The buildings are now full of collapsed roofs, overgrown floors and walls, and missing sections of stairwells.
Vegetation has overtaken the walkways, windows and doorways of the hospital.
Karl Hassall, the lead investigator, walked through the dilapidated buildings and found steel-framed beds, small rooms, and graffiti on the walls.
He and his team used devices to speak to ghosts who may have been roaming the area, found voices saying bodies had been buried beneath the buildings, and told the YouTubers to flee.
Venice exiled anyone with symptoms to Poveglia, which was a death sentence. Giant funeral pyres lined the center of the island, burning victims – some of whom were still alive at the time
Human ashes are believed to make up 50 percent of the soil on the island.
Another YouTube channel, Yes Theoryvisited Poveglia four years ago, and the three-man crew said it felt “really creepy” the moment they arrived.
Both groups experienced the sensation of people passing by or bumping into them – but no one else was seen on the island.
The 18-acre plot of weed-infested land is now a reminder of the people who have perished over the past few centuries.
The word ‘quarantine’ comes from the Italian ‘quaranta’, meaning that ships had to stay at anchor for forty days when they arrived in Venice.
The hospital was also converted into a geriatric facility. This image shows the laundry room in one of the buildings in the 19th century
This image shows ruined kitchen appliances scattered around Poveglia’s now-abandoned hospital
Rumors of gruesome lobotomies involving chisels and hand drills performed by a doctor who was allegedly driven to his death by ghosts have added to the island’s allure. According to legend, the doctor eventually committed suicide by throwing himself from a bell tower
The threat of the plague gradually diminished over the centuries, and by the 20th century Poveglia’s hospital had been converted into a psychiatric facility.
Rumors of gruesome lobotomies involving chisels and hand drills performed by a doctor who was allegedly driven to his death by ghosts have added to the island’s allure.
According to legend, the doctor eventually committed suicide by throwing himself off a clock tower.
British explorers also snuck onto the island two years ago, sharing images of the decaying abandoned buildings and eerie hospital beds.
Matt Nadin, a Sheffield salesman, posted the footage to his Finders Beepers History Seekers YouTube channel.
He said, “It was really, really creepy. You could see that even the taxi driver was scared not only of the police but also of the place itself, he couldn’t get away fast enough.’
Discussing the island’s mythology, Nadins said, “The island is so full of dark, dark history, an awful lot of people have died and you really get a sense of the horrors that took place there as you walk around.”
Pictured is the island in 1897, long before it was abandoned in 1968
The 18-hectare plot of weed-infested land is now a reminder of the people who have perished over the centuries
He continued, “They burned all the bodies and left them where they lay.
‘The island was never properly evacuated, so everything was just left behind.
“Later, when it was turned into an asylum because people there were pushed away from prying eyes, they started experimenting with it, horrible, horrible things.
“While we were there we heard the bell ring and it was quite spooky, that actually scared me a little bit. It was like an omen or something.
‘The whole place was just weird and eerie, although you could tell from the tiles and arches that it would have been a beautiful building originally.
‘You saw that hardly anyone had set foot there for years, because there is no graffiti or anything like that. It’s all just natural decay.
“Nature has taken over, and it was typical of a horror movie with all those vines and vines.
“Absolutely, an experience I won’t soon forget.”
Locals and tourists are forbidden to visit and fishermen avoid the cursed place.
In recent years, Italian construction crews attempted to restore the former hospital building, but abruptly stopped without explanation, leading locals to speculate that the island’s dark forces drove them out.