An island which some paranormal researchers say is ‘the most haunted place on earth’ was used as a hospital for the elderly until the 1930s, when a director threw himself from a high tower, saying he had been driven mad by ghosts.
These days, few people are allowed to visit the island of Poveglia, where 160,000 people are believed to have died from the plague.
Intrepid urban explorers Matt Nadin and Andy Thompson have ventured to Poveglia to snatch video of the Forbidden Island.
Their video shows the abandoned and crumbling buildings and the vast mass grave as well as several large containers which may have been used to burn bodies.
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There are reminders everywhere of the island’s haunted past. In the undergrowth, a Latin inscription on a tombstone dating from 1793 reads: “Do not dig. Those who suffered from contagion in life rest here.
Matt, 40, a salesman from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, posted the footage to his YouTube channel, Finders Beepers History Seekers, where he can often be found exploring abandoned and historic places of interest with Andy.
He said: “It was really, really strange. You could tell even the taxi driver was scared, not just of the police but of the place itself, he couldn’t run away fast enough”.
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Poveglia’s high body count stems from its time when people suspected of carrying the Black Death were quarantined before they could enter Venice.
The word “quarantine” comes from the fact that ships carrying suspected plague victims would have to stay offshore for 40 days before docking in Venice.
In practice, anyone quarantined in Poveglia was sentenced to death, as the plague was endemic there.
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In 1922, the buildings on the island were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill.
Rumors abounded that doctors there performed cruel experiments on inmates, including crude lobotomies, before the warden in charge, “driven mad by ghosts”, rushed from the hospital tower.
Some say they can still sometimes hear the ringing of the bell in the tower, even though it was removed a long time ago.
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Hand drills and other tools used in the doctor’s primitive surgical procedures are still scattered around the ruined buildings.
The island was then used as a retirement home for the elderly, until it was closed in 1968.
For the past 54 years, Poveglia and its psychiatric hospital have been closed to all visitors, its buildings allowed to crumble and decay as the natural world slowly recovers.
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In 2015, there was brief hope that the island could be redeveloped into a luxury resort.
The Italian state was hoping investors would arrive to turn the ruined hospital into a luxury hotel and there was talk of interest from Luigi Brugnaro, an entrepreneur who owns the local professional basketball team.
But the deal fell through, and despite being just minutes from the tourist traps of St. Mark’s Square, the island remains a desolate and lonely place.
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