Poveglia, an inconspicuous island located near Venice, has extremely spooky stories. Because centuries ago, victims of the plague - the Black Death, which decimated the population of Europe in waves, were buried there. Later, a psychiatric hospital was built on the site of the mass grave, where criminal experiments were carried out - both on the body and soul of patients.
The island is situated in the picturesque area of the Venetian lagoon - between Venice and Lido - is considered a specific hotbed of terror . Though the source of the mystery was recorded deep in the past, Poveglia still enjoys an extremely notorious reputation to this day. Italians, as a rule, try to avoid this place, which is why it is difficult for adventurous foreign tourists to get to the island of death.
The Haunting of the Black Death
The real horror came in the 14th century, when the plague raged in Italy for good. The epidemic, which began in Central Asia, most likely China, was spread through the Silk Road. Italian society has experienced the devastating power of the plague extremely painfully. One of the outbreaks of the disease was Venice. The famous carnival was to turn into an exceptionally macabre dance macabre, a dance of death to which everyone was invited - regardless of age, gender, wealth or origin.
Characteristic outfit of a doctor during the plague
The Venetian authorities, as well as representatives of the entire society, were paralyzed with fear. The ulcerated bodies of the unfortunate victims of the plague were a macabre picture. Decaying bowels, an overwhelming stench, and the risk of an aggravated plague forced us to take radical measures. The death toll was counted in tens, hundreds, then tens of thousands. The corpse, a habitat of terrifying bacteria, posed a real danger to the living.
In the face of the hecatomb started in January 1348, and biological extermination, it was decided that both the bodies of the victims and the sick, who most likely could not be healed, would be transported to a nearby island. Poveglia has become a cemetery where infected people await their final verdict. Counting on help was futile. People touched by the Black Death resembled the living dead - on the bodies of the sick there were black or blue stains, heralding an inevitable end in torment.
Haven to the Underworld
The history of the Italian island is dark and extremely gloomy - because it also served the isolation of the sick several times. It also became a mass grave for the victims of at least three major epidemics. It appeared in the chronicles in the first decades of the 5th century, when the people of Padua and Este, two cities in the Veneto region, fled from the barbarian hordes. But Poveglia was never meant to become a real and lasting refuge. It is true that the local population has gradually increased since the 9th century, but the island has been out of luck anyway.
Well, in 1397, when Venice became the target of an attack by the Genoa fleet, the Poveglia community was moved to the neighboring nearby Guiudecci. The Black Death, however, did not let you forget about itself. Several centuries have passed since the plague, it would seem that the spooky place is no longer under the influence of a kind of curse from the darkness of the Middle Ages. But nothing could be more wrong.
In 1793, when Poveglia had already been converted into a harbor for exporters, cases of plague patients began to emerge again. The island became a temporary prison for the sick, the so-called Lazaretto. It functioned there until 1805, when during Napoleon's reign, the tabernacle was finally closed to the unfortunates. At least temporarily.
Devil's Mental Hospital
Poveglia remained a cemetery, a mass grave with anonymous victims of the Black Death until 1922. It was then that the Italian authorities decided to re-use the land that had not been used for years. The opening of a psychiatric hospital was supposed to give hope. However, it brought a real terror that was played out over the years not only in the minds.
The island enjoys a dismal fame to this day
Patients locked in an isolated facility were to complain from the very beginning not only of poor conditions, but also of an aura of anxiety. Imagination, especially when fed with fear and dread, can awaken demons. The patients knew perfectly well what history was connected with the place where the hospital was built. After all, it was a kind of death waiting room, and also a morgue for plague victims. According to various sources, from 100,000 to even 150,000 people were buried there. But that wasn't the scariest part.
Relatively soon it was revealed that the asylum was in fact a devilish psychiatric hospital in which not so much therapeutic treatments as actual torture took place. The experiments, such as a lobotomy, which were extremely drastic, most likely carried out without any anesthesia, took place in the center's bell tower. One of the doctors who carried out murderous experiments, unable to withstand the pressure, committed suicide here. The event had a lot of publicity, and the hospital was finally closed in 1968.
Banned place on the map
However, a spooky story lives its life. Because although Povegli cannot be officially visited at present - there is a ban on sailing to the island - it arouses fascination. After all, it is a place of memory. An extremely spooky graveyard. Former laboratory where the body and soul of the unfortunate were experimented with. Poveglia, an inconspicuous island located near Venice, has extremely ghastly stories.
Bibliography:
- John Julius Norwich, History of Venice, W.A.B.
- Susan Scott, Black Death. Epidemics in Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times, Bellona