Location: Poveglia Island, 3 miles South of Venice Map
Area: 7.25 acres
Buildings: 11 structures
Closed (technically): due to poor state of buildings
Poveglia Island is a small island situated just 3 miles South of Venice in the Venetian Lagoon in Italy. Poveglia Island consists of two parts divided by a canal that has a single bridge over it. This abandoned plot of land is off limits to the tourists due to the condition of the buildings that are falling apart, but it does not mean people don't find ways to get to the island. Its main attraction is the remains of the mental institution that were opened in 1922 and closed in 1968. Many reports of paranormal activity have surfaced that keep the fame of Poveglia Island as one of the most haunted places in Italy alive and persistent. Several reality shows were filmed at this location including Ghost Adventures, Scariest Places on Earth and many more. Hospital that contains about 11 buildings on its grounds is considered to be one of the most haunted places.
Why is Poveglia Island off limits?
Currently there is reconstruction project going on the grounds of Poveglia Island by the Italian government. Dilapidated buildings are secured and reconstructed to restore to its previous significance. Additionally attempts are being undertaken to secure beaches of the island from further erosion into the sea. Hopefully it will be open soon for legal visits by tourists.
In ancient times it was called Popilia, probably due to its
vegetation (from the Latin populus "poplar") or in relation to the
nearby Via Popilia-Annia, built by the Roman consul Publio Popilio
Lenate. In ancient sixteenth-century maps, the island also appears in
the form Poveggia.
Following the Lombard invasion of the sixth
century and the destruction of the inland cities (in particular Padua
and Este), it became one of the resettlement centers for populations
fleeing towards the coasts. Becoming a village and seat of a castle, the
center effectively contributed, between 809 and 810, to the resistance
of Metamauco, the ancient capital of the duchy of Venice, besieged by
the Franks. The inhabitants of Popilia, for their active part in the
defense against the Frankish invasion, received a series of privileges,
such as exemption from taxes, from military service and from rowing in
the galleys.
In 864 the families of the 200 faithful servants of
Pietro Tradonico settled here who, following the revolts that arose from
the killer of the doge, had obtained here from the successor Orso I
Partecipazio the concession of lands and valleys, with the obligation of
an annual census and an act of homage to be performed on the second day
of Easter, and the right to have a ducal castaldo as governor, supported
by 27 local councillors.
Poveglia was a thriving centre, both
economically and demographically. The local families (Musso, Boyso,
Barbalongolo etc.) were engaged in fishing and salting, with interests
also in Chioggia and Pellestrina. At the ecclesiastical level, it was
headed by the parish church of San Vitale. The prosperity of the center
is also testified by the establishment, during the dogeship of
Bartolomeo Gradenigo, of a podestà, whose jurisdiction also extended
over the nearby Malamocco and Pellestrina.
The decline of
Poveglia coincided with the war of Chioggia, when it was decided to
evacuate the population to Venice. Despite the construction of a
fortification (Poveglia octagon), the island was still occupied by the
Genoese admiral Pietro Doria, who from here bombarded the monastery of
Santo Spirito. At the end of the conflict Poveglia was completely
devastated and its inhabitants, originally several hundred, were reduced
to a few dozen.
The povegliotti, however, maintained their
identity for centuries, even though they now resided in Venice.
Traditionally employed in fishing, they were among the few who were also
able to market their products as fish traders. Together with those of
Nicolotti and Arsenalotti, their representative had the privilege of
sitting on the Bucintoro next to the doge during the Sensa party. They
also had their own confraternity (named, not surprisingly, after San
Vitale) based in the church of San Trovaso and then in that of
Sant'Agnese, in whose parish most of the Povegliottis were concentrated.
The republic took an interest in the recovery of the island several
times, offering it now to the Camaldolese (1527), now to the same
Povegliotti (1661), but always obtained refusals. Only later was it
decided to exploit its proximity to the port of Malamocco (at the time
the only access to the lagoon suitable for large ships), using it as a
station for the storage and parking of boats and for the storage of
on-board equipment. Subsequently, its functions were increasingly
oriented towards health purposes: assigned to the Health Magistrate,
from 1782 its structures served for the control of men and goods and, if
necessary, as a hospital (the islands of Lazzaretto Vecchio and
Lazzaretto Nuovo were become inadequate). On two occasions, in 1793 and
1798, it hosted the crews of two boats sick with the plague (they were
probably the last manifestations of the disease in Venice).
A
marble plaque, found on the west coast, bears the following wording: "ne
fodias vita functi contagion requescunt MDCCXCIII", i.e. "do not dig
(disturb) the dead from contagion alive, they rest 1793".
It
maintained the functions of a maritime quarantine station throughout the
nineteenth century and until after the Second World War. In the last
period the buildings were partly used as a geriatric convalescent home,
but from 1968 this use too was abandoned and the island was handed over
to the State.
For a time, its lands were assigned to a farmer,
while the buildings gradually fell into disrepair. Since then the island
has been the subject of various recovery projects, which however have
never been implemented.
In 1997 the Student and Youth Tourist
Center presented a plan for the construction of a youth hostel; in 1999,
consequently, the Ministry of the Treasury excluded Poveglia from the
assets to be sold to private individuals and returned it to the state so
that it could be granted to the CTS, but the initiative did not go
through.
Since 2003, the island has been managed, like others, by
Arsenale di Venezia spa, jointly owned by the Municipality of Venice and
the Agenzia del Demanio. In 2013, together with San Giacomo in Paludo,
Poveglia was put up for sale to be recovered for tourism purposes; on 6
March 2014, the State Property Agency included the island in a list of
assets in a "public invitation to offer", i.e. through an auction
subject to the assessment of the economic convenience of selling by a
Commission set up for this purpose.
In 2009, following the many
paranormal legends, the crew of Zak Bagans, of the Ghost Adventures
program, made an investigation on the island, where an alleged evil
spirit would have possessed Zak for a few minutes. This shook Zak so
much that he decided to get a tattoo behind his back, claiming that it
was one of the most terrifying experiences of his life.
In April
2014, a non-profit association was born, Poveglia - Poveglia per tutti,
with the aim of participating in the tender of the State property to win
possession of the island for 99 years and allow its public use. On 13
May 2014, the day of the public invitation to bid for Poveglia del
Demanio, Luigi Brugnaro, patron of Umana, made the best offer of 513,000
euros. However, the State Property Commission deemed the offer
incongruous and the entrepreneur consequently opposed this decision by
announcing his appeal to the TAR.
421 - The island was a refuge for people who fled from Padua and Este
during the barbarian invasions.
809 - Following the invasion of
Pepin, the inhabitants fled to the Rialtine islands.
864 - Doge Orso
Partecipazio, to put down the revolt of the servants of the murdered
Doge Pietro Tradonico, allowed them to live on the island of Poveglia
and gave the community many privileges. In the following centuries the
island prospered both economically and demographically so much that it
was ruled first by a tribune, then by a ducal steward and finally by a
Podestà.
1379 - During the war of Chioggia, the fort called Ottagono
was built to defend the island and is still visible today; for security
reasons the inhabitants were transferred to the Giudecca.
1527 - The
Magistrato alle Ragioni Vecchie, seeing the abandonment of the place and
the buildings following the war of Chioggia, offered it to the
Camaldolese to build a convent, but they refused.
1661 - It was
proposed to the Povegliani to rebuild the buildings but they also
refused.
1777 - It passed under the jurisdiction of the Health
Magistrate, and became a transit and health control station for the
crews of vessels and for the expurgation of goods.
1793/1799 - Due to
a plague epidemic that broke out on two ships, the island was
temporarily used as a hospital.
1805/1814 - It was definitively used
as a hospital. Following the Napoleonic edict, the church dedicated to
San Vitale was demolished and the adjacent bell tower was used as a
lighthouse. - Start
20th century - The island was equipped as a
maritime station for the quarantine of crews and passengers coming from
ports where cases of epidemics had occurred. In the following years, the
health complex was converted into a convalescent home for the rest home.
1968 - This last use was abandoned and after a brief period of
abandonment the island was given in concession to a farmer who
cultivates the uncovered spaces. The buildings, due to the total lack of
maintenance, are rapidly falling into disrepair.
1997 - The CTS draws
up a project for the island which envisages the construction of a
complex for youth accommodation and cultural enjoyment.
1999 - The
Ministry of the Treasury excludes Poveglia from the list of assets to be
put up for sale and hands it back to the State so that it can be granted
to the CTS. In this context, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova will have to
proceed with the renewal of the margins. I visit.
Of the ancient parish church of San Vitale only the bell tower
remains, spared from the Napoleonic suppressions because it was used
as a lighthouse. The tower clock, dating back to 1745 is the work of
Bartolomeo Ferracina.
The church of Poveglia was a place of
worship of certain importance as there was preserved a crucifix in
plaster and stucco of the fifteenth century considered miraculous;
it is found today in the parish church of Malamocco. However, the
paintings representing Christ led to Calvary, by Giulia Lama, and
the Miracle of the Crucifix by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta have been
lost.
Several sources indicate in Poveglia island the place
where, in 1510, the famous painter Giorgione was buried, but there
is no certainty. Another source indicates, for example, the island
of the Lazzaretto Nuovo as a burial site.
From the ghosts of the dead of the plague to that of the mad
doctor who threw himself from the bell tower
It is said of
thousands of plague victims who lost their lives in this place, who
lie buried haphazardly in huge mass graves and who would still
infest it today, without being able to find peace.
It tells of a
crazy doctor who carried out terrible experiments on children housed
in an orphanage, innocent victims of a madness that ended only with
suicide, when the man threw himself from the top of the bell tower
of the small church that still stands out among the trees .
To support these hypotheses, the presence of the indication of a
psychiatric ward, still today painted on the facade of a crumbling
building, as well as that of strange equipment - largely covered
with rust and dust - and that general sense of unease and mystery
that brings with it every ruined place whose history is not known.
Young gostbusters on the run
One summer a few years ago, five
twenty-year-old Americans paid the price who, well determined to
spend a night hunting for ghosts, found nothing better than to call
for help to passing boats in the middle of the night, terrified,
stating that the place was haunted from evil spirits and
otherworldly presences.
The curious thing is that most Venetians…
“discovered” it then, thanks to them.
Up to that moment, in fact,
no Venetian legend, ancient or modern, had ever referred to this
sinister aspect of the island.
Poveglia: a community dear to
the doges and an island in vogue until the mid-1300s
But what is
the truth? The first of the acclaimed truths is that Poveglia is in
a total state of abandonment: crumbling dormitories, large kitchens
in ruins, stairs and collapsed walls.
Yet the island has a long
and sumptuous history, which begins almost with the history of
Venice and is accompanied for a long time with the destinies of the
Serenissima: the Poveglianense community was very dear to the doges.
It had special privileges and was flourishing until almost the
entire fourteenth century.
After the middle of that century the
island was abandoned and in the fifteenth century it remained
substantially uninhabited.
An alternating fate of abandonment and
reuse followed until the eighteenth century, when it became a
sanatorium.
The arrival of the plague
1793 marked a
turning point. That year, a small Greek ship arrived in Venice whose
sailors complained of symptoms that were sadly known in the city:
they had the plague and were taken to Poveglia.
There were about
thirty of them, and twelve of them died and were buried on the
island.
Six years later (it was 1799 and the Republic was now a
thing of the past), another eight sailors – this time from a Spanish
ship – lost their lives and were buried in Poveglia, again due to
the plague.
Twenty people who died at the end of the eighteenth
century and who are very far from the figures that the contemporary
narrative would have us believe: not twenty thousand, not two
hundred thousand. Twenty people in all.
There are also images of
mass graves circulating on the net which have nothing to do with
Poveglia but which concern the nearby Lazzaretto Vecchio (on which,
incidentally, there is no "black" legend).
Three hospitals
for Venice
The Venetians invented the Lazzaretti and the
quarantine.
The Old Lazzaretto was established in 1423, followed
by the New one in 1468 and finally by Poveglia, who established the
“Novissimo” Lazzaretto in 1793.
Today of all this remains only a
half-buried stone hidden among the vegetation which reads: "Ne
fodias", do not dig, which can also be interpreted as "do not
disturb".
“The living dead from contagion – continues the
inscription – rest here”.
The date is that of 1793, precisely.
These are mass burials of the victims of several waves of plagues on Poveglia Island. This is only a fraction of all the bodies that were buried here. Many more were burned or tossed in similar holes around the Poveglia Island. Local fisherman avoid the area around the islands. Due to soil erosion over the course of centuries many of the former graves were washed away. People's bones were commonly found in the fish nets that were thrown here. So locals stopped fishing here altogether.