Step onto plague island where soil holds a grim and creepy secret

28 January 2024 , 07:42

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Beds and furniture remain in one of the dormitories in the psychiatric ward (Image: Getty Images)

Tourists with a love of the macabre are heading to the “island of death” where thousands of ill people were sent to die sometimes in the most horrific way.

The secluded island of Poveglia lies between Venice and Lido in Italy. It may be only a short distance from the glamour of the Venice Film Festival but it has a very dark history.

It was once a quarantine station and a place where thousands of people were buried in mass graves during the Black Plague. With the disease spreading across Italy and wiping out 75% of Europe’s population, people with any signs of the illness were put on the island.

Giant pits in the centre of the island were used to put victims, some even still alive, and they were burned. It continued to be a place to hold the sick and it is thought that around 160,000 people died there during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Ruined kitchen equipment at the hospital (Getty Images)

By the 1800s there was also a mental hospital and there are many tales of doctors carrying out horrific experiments such as shoving chisels into brains to see what moved. The island also had many other patients suffering other forms of sickness as well as mental illness and they would often live there until they died.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

The "Stazione Sanitaria di Poveglia" (Hospital of Poveglia) with the San Vitale belfry (Getty Images)

Today the patients may have gone but their remains are buried in the earth and images show the creepy derelict mental hospital which is now falling apart. With overgrown and untamed grass, and creepy metal beds strewn all over the place, it adds to the eerie element of the psychiatric ward.

The hospital now lies abandoned with claims it is haunted (Getty Images)

Much of the original furniture remains in the hospital, while the corridors remain bare and empty, and the staircase towards the main hall ruined. While the island is closed off from the public, urban explorers have gone and filmed the ruins. Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans led his team of Ghost Hunters to the island.

The island is close to Venice (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The crew based themselves there for 24 hours where they described sensing a weird energy and strange goings on. Between mysterious bangs, audible footsteps and voices, the footage it reinforced claims that the island is haunted.

There are no boats that make regular stops there but visitors keen to check it out may apply to visit. It requires a lengthy application process, where a certain level of clearance must be obtained before stepping foot there. And, there is also a pretty penny to pay - around 200 euros - since Italians like to keep Poveglia at the bottom of their list of tourist attractions.

Tim Hanlon