Season 1: Episode 4, Poveglia Island The World's Most Haunted Island

It was an average day at the asylum, He walked to the bell tower. Slowly, he climbed the steps, one at a time. Voices, constantly whispering to him. Murderer, what have you done to me, where am I, where is my family? Over and over again his victims kept pushing for a chance to whisper in his ear. It overwhelmed him. Finally, he reached the top of the bell tower. I need the fresh air, he thought, to rid myself of these thoughts. But the souls had something else in mind. Join us…they started…doctor…I need your help…come here. The whispers were coming from the ground below, drawing him closer and closer. He leaned over to see if it was one of the nurses calling out for him. It was only then that he felt the pressure of thousands of hands on his back as they…pushed. Turning around, he screamed as he went plummeting to the ground looking into the ghastly faces he knew all too well. His patients. Their dead eyes stared at him. He slammed into the ground, all his bones breaking. The agony was unbearable. A nurse witnessed the event and began running toward him. Help me, he tried to call out. Slowly a mist began forming around him, obscuring his vision. Doctor…come with us…we need you. The voices began again, rapidly begging for his assistance. Then, the faces returned. Solid black holes where their eyes should have been. Their mouths opened…and opened…more and more. He tried to scream but all the air was sucked out of his body. His lungs were on fire. His eyes bulged as he realized he couldn't breathe, all the souls had their cold, wispy hands around his throat. Tightening their grip ever so much. Until the world faded away and the doctor finally found…silence.

It is thought through archaeological evidence that the small, 18-acre island of Poveglia was first inhabited in approximately 2000 BCE by the Euganei culture (Historic Mysteries). Poveglia has spent much of its inhabited life as a refuge. Poveglia’s historical record begins during Atila the Hun’s campaign throughout Eurasia in 421 CE when the inhabitants of Padua and Este fled to Poveglia to escape the Germanic Tribes and Huns attacking them. In the 12th century the church of San Vitale was constructed, with its infamous bell tower soaring over the surrounding landscape of the island. After centuries of acting as a place for safety, the role of Poveglia changed.

The Venetian government actually built 8 octagonal forts throughout the Lagoon, but the Poveglia fort is the only one still around today. You can still see the octagonal brick base next to the main island. Poveglia’s role as protection for the city of Venice continued when it became a lazaretto, or quarantine island, for ships before they could enter Venice. Fun fact, the word quarantine comes from Italian, quaranta giorn, which means 40 days. Ships would be docked on Poveglia for 40 days before they could enter Venice in hopes to stop the spread of the Black Death to Venice. But the Black Death arrived in 1576 and Poveglia was, as well as some other surrounding islands, utilized as a colony to throw those affected away to keep them separate from the general population.

Because of the belief in Miasmic Theory, the Venetian government implemented a quarantine practice where those with bubonic symptoms were sent to Poveglia for a 40-day period. If after 40 days they appeared healthy they were allowed to return to Venice and their homes. But sadly, many never left. They were kept in a plague hospital with a care staff to try to help them recover.

Povelia’s story is nowhere near done. After the plague subsided the island was not abandoned. They kept the plague hospital running, just in case. And this was the best idea the Venetian government had. For in the 1630s the Black Death returned, and this would be the worst wave in Italy’s history, destroying one-third of Italy’s population alone. Paranoia was at an all-time, high as everyone feared the plague. You better not have any seasonal allergies at this time, because even those who were healthy were being ripped from their families and being sent unwillingly to a lazaretto because of suspicion of illness or showing mild (and commonly associated with non-life threatening illnesses) symptoms. There they would be undoubtedly exposed to the plague and die on the island.

Unfortunately, the doctors still did not have the proper medical knowledge required to combat the bubonic plague at that time, and many died within 2-7 days of showing symptoms. Barges were coming in from Venice stacked with the bodies of those they could not get to Poveglia fast enough. The island became overrun with those afflicted and the ever-growing dead. At first, the bodies would be thrown into mass graves, one excavated was found to hold at least 1500 skeletal remains showing signs of bubonic plague. I asked biological archaeologist, Kelly Clark, about this, and she stated that bubonic plague kills too quickly to show symptoms in the bones, unless there was enough DNA left to test from these remains to accurately claim this is a plague pit. But without accurate or historical records there is no way to know for sure. Dysentery and cholera are other diseases that are hard to test for from the bones for the same reasons as being quick killers. Whereas Polio, cancer, tuberculosis, and syphilis are examples of diseases that will appear in the bones as they are slower killers.

Bodies would be piled up and burned on the burning grounds on the island. It is theorized that by the end of the Black Death epidemic, 160,000 people were buried or cremated on Poveglia alone. A popular legend today is that Poveglia’s soil is composed of 50% human ash. Archaeologist, Kelly Clark, says that this is completely possible to be true and says that based on the history of Poveglia and its size, the number could be as high as 75% human remains within the soil. Looking at images of the island, she stated that with the dense and lush foliage, it is evident that the soil is very well-fertilized. She further stated that human ashes and remains are grimly a very strong fertilizer, all the human remains are missing is the nitrate needed for plants, so this helps give the theory potential validation of a significant or balanced amount of human remains mixed within the soil.

Back to history, in the 1770s Poveglia returned to its status as a checkpoint for ships. By the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte was ruling over Venice. He had the church of San Vitale demolished, leaving only the bell tower that he had converted into a lighthouse in 1805. Napoleon had the island remain as a lazaretto for incoming ships until 1814 at the latest. The island became uninhabited for a little over a century.

Interest in the island resumed in 1922 when the remaining medieval buildings were repurposed into a mental asylum. Again, this is a topic that we will go much more in-depth with in a later month. For a short explanation of early 20th-century mental healthcare, the field was in its infancy. Various natural parts of life could land you in an asylum, such as being homosexual or a woman defying her husband. Other reasons for being institutionalized were syphilis, depression, epilepsy, hysteria, masturbation in children, or being “racially impure”.

During its time as a mental asylum, patients on Poveglia claimed to hear screams throughout the night. Now, whether these were the screams of tortured souls from the past or other patients being mistreated it is not stated. There are many known accounts in other institutions of the time that patients would hear the screams of others throughout the night due to the horrible treatments they were all receiving. Sadly, it is assumed that when these patients went to doctors claiming to hear the screams of tortured spirits, this allowed them to become unwilling participants in gruesome experiments. It is believed in the 1930s that a sadistic doctor was working on Poveglia. He was a strong proponent of the dreaded lobotomy and wanted to make a name for himself by improving on the lobotomy. His version used rusted tools and he tried extra surgeries to “improve” his patients' health. Many souls were tortured and killed under this doctor. Now, I have to state, there is no historical record of this doctor or his experiments. The legend continues that slowly the doctor began to lose his mind, hearing the screams that his patients claimed to hear of the plague victims. Slowly his own victims of malpractice began to haunt him as well. Finally, he could not take it anymore.

It is claimed in the legend that after jumping or being pushed toward his death that a nurse found the doctor still alive and in agony. As she tried to get closer, a mist mysteriously appeared around the doctor and suffocated him to death.

After its time as a mental asylum, Poveglia became a nursing home until 1968. I was unable to find any legends or haunting stories from this time.

The island was abandoned after 1968. Multiple attempts were made to renovate the island to possibly turn it into a hotel or resort. All of these attempts failed as workers report constantly being scared off from their work by ghostly spirits and strange happenings. Pictures of the hospital today show the old scaffolding still surrounding it. In an effort to try to help alleviate the national debt, Italy tried to sell Poveglia island in 2014. The island was finally bought for £400k. Luigi Brugnaro is an Italian businessman and now the proud owner of possibly the world’s most haunted island.

It is illegal for anyone to step foot on the island without express permission from the Italian government. Some American shows have been given permission, mainly Scariest Places on Earth, Ghost Adventures, and Ghost Hunters International. But if you are on vacation in Venice and have some extra money there are a few fishermen willing to bring naive tourists to Hell Island…but do not stay there too long, because the fishermen refuse to be near Poveglia at night. And you don't want to be alone with these spirits after dark.

Poveglia's Infamous Bell Tower

My research was sourced from the Journal of Social Health, Vintage News, the CDC, Historic Mysteries, and Conde Nast Traveller. Special thanks to Biological Archaeologist, Kelly Clark, for conducting her informative interview with me.