Poveglia… A story about the Black Death, and sadistic scientists. But are the atrocities true? Is Poveglia a few miles outside Venice, Italy, the most haunted place on earth?

Poveglia Island.

Just a few miles south of Venice, Italy, inside the lagoon, there’s a solitaire triangle-shaped island. It is one of many deserted islands around Venice… Islands that once were flourishing with people, livestock, houses, and squares, but which now are home to rabbits and seabirds.

Poveglia is different only through its name. While names like Madonna del Monte or Isola Campalto slumber away in the shallow waters, Poveglia has become famous all over the world. And its fame is intimately connected to paranormal activity.

Poveglia – Known from TV.

In 2000, The Fox Family created a series called The Scariest Places on Earth. The idea was to let an ordinary, or reasonably ordinary family, travel to haunted and scary places, and document their experiences. Episode nr. 23 is called The Island of no Return and the destination was obviously Poveglia. The episode aired on August 19, 2001, with a follow-up on August 24, 2001.

The style was innovative, and the series was a success. It continues for five seasons 2000-2002, and 2005-2006. In the Poveglia episodes, the history behind the hauntings is thoroughly explained. And this is how it goes:

The Plague

The Bubonic Plague hit Venice more than 60 times from 1348 until late 1700. Every time it brought sufferings beyond our imagination. On occasions the effective Venetian quarantine system could block it before it became explosive, but other times that was not the case.

1348, 1423, 1575, and 1630 stand out as years when the epidemic killed between a third and half of the city’s population. The other waves of disease, around 60 in 450 years were less disastrous thanks to an effective quarantine. The word quarantine derives from the Italian word for 40, quaranta, and it determines the number of days persons and goods had to wait before entering the city.

Still, in times of pestilence the two quarantine-islands, Lazaretto Nuovo, and Lazaretto Vecchio, weren’t enough. And that’s where Poveglia comes in, at least according to Fox Family. Those who were most severely ill were shipped to Poveglia. But the island wasn’t really a hospital. It was just a place for people to die. They were dropped off and that was that.

In the program, it’s stated that in some parts of Poveglia Island, as much as 50% of the soil consists of ashes from burnt human bodies.

The mental institution

But the horrors do not finish there. In 1922, after being abandoned for many years, an asylum was built. New ideologies were at hand and a brand new leadership. The Fascist state needed places to put away the mentally ill.

However, at some point in the 20s, a particularly dogmatic, and eager fascistic professor became chief physician on the island. In those days lobotomy was thought of as a normal and efficient therapy for mentally ill patients. And as they didn’t really have any anesthetics, and the patients were mad anyway…

It is said that the screams from Poveglia could be heard to the Lido island and even all the way to Venice on calm summer nights.

The doctor died in 1942 and that too is a disturbing story. All through the 20s and the 30s patients and personnel had been complaining about strange lights, shadows, and voices around and inside the buildings. But nothing was ever investigated or done to prevent such a phenomenon. In 1942 the doctor finally snapped. He ran through the rooms and out in the open as if he was possessed, Screaming in fear he rushed to the old bell tower, up the stairs, and threw himself out the window.

Somebody said that he didn’t die on impact, but a fog rose from the trees behind the building, closed in to cover his body, and choked him to death.

The final years of Poveglia – the haunted island.

After the war, the island was made unreachable. Poveglia became strictly forbidden and illegal. You can’t reach it without bribing some courageous taxi driver or having your own boat. And you would still risk a heavy fine.

The locals don’t go there anyway, it’s too risky. Screams, and cries for help are still heard from the dark ruins… And it’s said that fishermen, still catch human bones in their nets if they try their luck too close to the shores of the scariest place on earth… Poveglia.

Poveglia after Fox Family.

For 20 years there has been a steady flow of mostly young people, YouTubers, and non, going to Venice just to experience one of the scariest places in the world. Just search YouTube for Poveglia, and you’ll have a vast choice.

Unlike many other haunted locations, the tourist industry of Venice doesn’t depend in any way on ghost-related tourism. Venice is already a huge tourist magnet as it is. And as Poveglia doesn’t offer anything by itself, there’s no money in it for anybody… Maybe except for the Taxi driver who will take you there. That fact alone could actually indicate real paranormal activity on Poveglia Island… Real supernatural sightings.

But it doesn’t, it doesn’t prove anything. And the reason is simply that all I’ve told you so far, all that The Scariest Places on Earth claims, and all that’s said in all of the other videos out there… Well, it’s simply not true.

How to do a TV show.

The problem was that Fox channel did a TV show, nothing else. They put in footage and info to make an interesting program. The The Scariest Places on Earth series was even involved in a few controversies regarding paid actors, and falsified information. The way I see it, they were doing good broadcasting… A show. It wasn’t the news, it wasn’t a documentary… It was a TV show.

But somehow, their statements became common knowledge, and then somehow they became actual facts.

Seven years after Fox Family, Travel Channel created their own version of reality-supernatural-TV: Ghost Adventures. The layout was the same and in 2009 they too visited Poveglia. And the same story about the Plague victims and the mad doctor was told. Their program was even aired on Friday the 13th of November 2009, to make the most of the ghostly feeling.

So, what is the truth behind it all?

The true truth is that Poveglia never was a Plague island. And it never was a real hospital. In late 1700, Venice’s two hospital islands Lazaretto Vecchio and Lazaretto Nuovo, were old and they had suffered flooding (Not unusual in Venice…). So the city council discussed building a brand new facility on Poveglia. The plans were only carried out partially and only from 1814, though.

When the very last plague-infected ships came to Venice in 1793 and 1799, they were sent to Poveglia Island. 12 sailors died. We even have their names, and we know where they were buried.

In early 1800 it continued hosting arriving ships and sailors. But at this time the Bubonic Plague was over in Venice. It played an important role in the 1831-1837 cholera pandemic. And victims were buried in the new cemetery on the island.

And there was no asylum. There was a geriatric clinic. Venice at the beginning of 1900 was still a big city, with a large population. And it seemed like an excellent idea to offer green and healthy surroundings for the elderly of the crowded city. Poveglia was the perfect place and work began to prepare it with good living conditions.

When doing so, they built a psychiatric clinic to treat any mental illness. That very sign on the wall, probably inspired someone to invent the story about the mad doctor. We cannot say anything for sure about the treatment of the patients there and then, We just don’t know. We don’t even know the name of the chief Physician.

The 20s and 30s were full of nationalistic ideologies and ideas about the purification of races. Surely the way they looked at psychological problems, and general treatment of the sick and elderly, was very different from what we think today. But the geriatric clinic at Poveglia was like any other geriatric clinic during that time… No more no less.

It closed in 1968. And that’s when the last inhabitant left the island.

What do the locals say?

Well, the locals don’t say much at all. At the most, they raise their eyebrows and ask:

– What? Which island is infested by ghosts and phantoms, did you say?

Because in Venice, nobody would dream of regarding Poveglia as haunted. There are other islands, and other places, even inside of Venice that are much more disturbing. Poveglia is just a calm, deserted piece of land where the Venetians sometimes go Sunday afternoons to have a picnic under the fruit trees.

And what about the scientists… What do they say?

CICAP, Comitato italiano per il controllo delle affermazioni sulle pseudoscienze (Italian Committee for the Control of Pseudoscientific claims), are astonished. One should be aware, that this is a more skeptical association than many other national societies investigating paranormal activity. But they are quite baffled by the interest that Poveglia suddenly has developed, mostly in the US. To them, Poveglia isn’t even worth investigating.

To conclude in the same line of reasoning. Poveglia isn’t haunted, and it isn’t very scary, more than the possible threat of falling roof tiles. There’s just nothing there. The buildings are falling apart, nature is reconquering what man has made, and the rabbits are multiplying rapidly.

The island does have a very interesting history, though, A history of wealth from trading, wars, political intrigues, and exile in Venice. But in that history, there aren’t any thousands of dying plague victims, and there is no mad doctor.

It’s just another island in the Venice lagoon.

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