Poveglia

Poveglia ( ; ) is a small island located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, of northern Italy. A small canal divides the island into two separate parts. The island first appears in the historical record in 421 and was populated until the residents fled warfare in 1379. For more than 100 years, beginning in 1776, the island was used as a quarantine station for those suffering the plague and other diseases, and later as a mental hospital. The mental hospital closed in 1968, and the island has been vacant ever since. Because of its history, the island is frequently featured on paranormal shows.

History

The island was used as a quarantine station from 1793 until 1814. In 1922 the existing buildings were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill and later used as a nursing home/long-term care facility, until its closure in 1968.

In 2014, the Italian state auctioned a 99-year lease of Poveglia, which would remain state property, to raise revenue, hoping that the buyer would redevelop the hospital into a luxury hotel. The highest bid was from Italian businessman Luigi Brugnaro, (€513,000). He planned to invest €20 million in a restoration plan. The lease did not proceed because his project was judged not to meet all the conditions. Other sources suggested that the deal was annulled because the bid was too low. Brugnaro initially fought the cancellation of the lease, but after he became mayor of Venice, he renounced any intentions to the island.

In 2015, a private group, Poveglia per Tutti, was hoping to raise €25–30 million for a new plan to include "a public park, a marina, a restaurant, a hostel nda study centre." As of 2020 the island remained vacant.

Buildings and structures

The surviving buildings on the island consist of a cavana, a church, a hospital, an asylum, a bell-tower, housing and administrative buildings for the staff. The bell-tower is the most visible structure on the island, and dates back to the 12th century. It belonged to the church of San Vitale, which was demolished under Napoleon's orders in 1806. The tower was re-used as a lighthouse.

A bridge connects the island where buildings stand with the island that was given over to trees and fields. The octagonal fort is on a third, separate island, next to the island with the buildings, but unconnected to it. The fort consists solely of an earthen rampart faced on the outside with brick.

The island contains one or more plague pits. An estimate published by ''National Geographic'' suggest that over 100,000 people died on the island over the centuries and were buried in plague pits.

News reports in 2014/2015 said that the building and rusting artefacts still existed.

Popular culture

Sometime after the island had become a quarantine station for ships arriving at Venice in the 18th century, plague was discovered on two boats. The island was sealed off and used to host people with infectious diseases, leading to legends of terminally ill Venetians waiting to die before their ghosts returned to haunt the island.

A doctor allegedly experimented on patients with crude lobotomies. According to a 2014 report by the Travel Channel, the doctor jumped from the bell tower in the 1930s after he said he had been driven mad by ghosts. He later died. Decades later, nearby residents said they heard the bell still, which was removed many years earlier. That report, titled "Haunted History", also states that some restoration work had started recently and had "abruptly stopped without explanation".https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures/articles/poveglia-islands-haunted-history, Poveglia Island's Haunted History

References

External links

Poveglia Island Paranormal Report


* ttps://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=venice,+italy&ll=45.380419,12.332153&spn=0.004657,0.011051&t=k Satellite image from Google Maps
The Island of Poveglia Is a Classic Italian Horror Story - Horror World

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Islands of the Venetian Lagoon
Reportedly haunted locations in Italy