Dark tourists flock to abandoned 'Island of Death' where 160,000 died in Plague

23 July 2023 , 21:05

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Very few people step foot on the abandoned island where nobody now lives (Image: Getty Images)

Morbid tourists are flocking to a tiny 'Island of Death' which became a dumping ground for the diseased during the bubonic plague.

More than 160,00 Italian people are said to have died there but instead of it being a place of respect and reflection, the walls of the ancient buildings are stained with graffiti.

Poveglia Island is about four miles from the heart of Venice which hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year.

In the 1300s, the brutal Black Death wiped out an estimated 60 per cent of Europe's population.

It was so cataclysmic that it is known as one of the bleakest moments of European history, claiming the lives of hundreds of millions.

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Poveglia is a few miles from the tourist centre of Venice (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Recently, the hugely popular YouTube channel Yes Theory visited the island – and shared their "nauseous" experience, Express.co.uk reports.

The Chernobyl-esque look created by overgrowth as well as the history of the island is likely to be terrifying to ordinary tourists.

Rare visitors of the island recently said there's a risk that every "bump" you stand on is one of its thousands of unmarked graves.

Even Yes Theory – a group who have visited some of the most desolate and dangerous places in the world – was creeped out by their experience on the island.

The Hospital of Poveglia has been left to rot (Getty Images)

Poveglia Island hosted 160,000 infected people who lived their final days on the island.

But it wasn’t just the plague that earned the island its moniker but the construction of a mental hospital in 1922.

Local sources tell of a legend of a doctor who tortured and killed many of his patients by throwing them off its bell tower.

The hospital was shut in 1968 and its ruins have been collecting greenery since.

Just miles from Venice is an island completely "absent of life" (Getty Images)

One of the Yes Theory group said: "I am so creeped out.

"The fact that it's so quiet makes it even creepier. You really pay attention to the wind and like every little sound, and you just wonder, like every little bump in nature, you wonder, is that like, is that a grave?"

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He added: "The absence of life that we experienced on this island and what remains of it left us feeling hollow, heavy, and baffled that places like this even exist."

Venice is home to several islands with horrifying reputations similar to Plague Island.

Lazzaretto Nuovo is another haunting island where the mythical “vampire of Venice” was rumoured to operate.

A staircase is ruined in the main hall of the abandoned hospital (Getty Images)

Mass graves have been found on the island, including a woman with a brick jammed in her mouth – thought to be the so-called vampire’s favoured method of killing.

Legend says the vampire was a Shroud Eater, a vampire that is said not to kill by biting necks.

According to Atlas Obscura, the explanation for the brick is probably just because the cemetery where she was found was reused many years later.

A plague hospital was built on the island in 1423 amid the plague.

Luke Whelan