Scary Urban Legends: Poveglia the Haunted Island

 

A long time ago, on an island situated between Venice and Lido, there was an island in the Venetian lagoon called Poveglia.

The island was where people sought a haven from barbaric attacks and built a new life for themselves.

Then came the era of the bubonic plague and the island was used to keep the sick in isolation. Those who died from the disease were burned and their ashes were rumoured to have been spread all around the island.

Years later, the island was used for another purpose once again; this time to send the mentally ill. A mental asylum was built and those who were thought to be mentally unfit were packed up and sent there, away from the main cities.

It is said, that those diagnosed to be mentally unfit weren't necessarily people who had actual mental health problems, but those who thought independently and had ideals that were not thought normal at that time.

The hospital had a bell tower and it wasn't long after that one of the doctors plunged to their death.

When the staff was questioned about the incident, there were different stories that were circulated.

Some say that the doctor had gone crazy himself and committed suicide. Some say a patient threw him off. That patient was thought not to be mentally unfit but sent there nevertheless.

The doctor was said to perform lobotomies and was cruel to his patients. He tortured them and was hell-bent on proving that drilling holes into people's head were the only way to cure a mental patient.

Another story was that he simply slipped and fell.

This incident caused the closure of the mental asylum, mostly because shortly after the doctor's curious death and the subsequent removal of the bell tower from which he fell, residents swore they heard the bell still ringing and the screams and cries of people who weren't exactly there

The island was shut off and people were removed and sent elsewhere. The fishermen refused to fish around the island.

They were certain the island was haunted.

For years, the island was tried to be sold and the abandoned hospital to either be torn down or renovated but some factor or another would cause interference and the plans would be scrapped.

For years the island was shut off and visitors were forbidden from going there. Special permission was sought to enter the island and film documentaries.

No more unexplained incidents have occurred yet, but the stories remain.

Till today nobody knows for sure how the doctor died. And the screams...were they of the patients who were tortured during a lobotomy or people who died during the plague?

The island will always be shrouded in mystery.