Ghost Map

EN PL

Haunted places · Forests, islands and abandoned places

Poveglia – the Plague Island of the Venetian Lagoon

When
since 1793 date from records made at the time
Where
Poveglia Island, Venetian Lagoon, Italy
Verdict
Legend

An abandoned islet between Venice and the Lido is sometimes called “the most haunted place on Earth” – but its most frightening legends were born on television.

Show on the timeline

45.38°, 12.33° · dimmed: other phenomena within 1,500 km

What happened

Poveglia was inhabited in the early Middle Ages, and by the 9th century it lived from fishing and salt-making. Its people left during the war between Venice and Genoa in 1379. From 1793 it served as a quarantine station for ships and their cargo, and in 1922 the old buildings were converted into a care home for the elderly, which closed in 1968. Since then the hospital, a small church and a 12th-century bell tower, converted into a lighthouse, have slowly been overgrown. A legend grew around the island: more than a hundred thousand plague victims were supposedly buried here, the soil half made of human ash. In a mental hospital a mad doctor allegedly carried out cruel experiments until, pushed by the ghosts of his patients, he fell from the bell tower. Fishermen were said to avoid the island for fear of netting bones, and at night groans and the sound of a long-gone bell were said to drift across the water. Landing on the island is officially forbidden, which only adds to its menace.

Witnesses

Popular ghost-hunting TV shows, including “Ghost Adventures” (2009), tourists and urban explorers.

Explanations and hypotheses

According to the Italian sceptics' association CICAP, the haunting stories and the 100,000 plague victims were popularised by the American show “Ghost Adventures” in 2009. Venetian writer Alberto Toso Fei explained to the New York Times that Poveglia was one of many islands where the sick were isolated, and that plague deaths on it were few – around twenty is the figure given. The island housed a care home, not a mental hospital, and the story of the mad doctor has no basis. Since 2025 part of the island is set to become a public park.

Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.

Sources

  1. Il Post – L'isola abbandonata di Poveglia, nella laguna di Venezia (2022)
  2. The Guardian – How much? Haunted island near Venice Lido sells for €513,000 (2014)
  3. Elisabetta Povoledo, For Some Venetians, This Overgrown Island Is Paradise (The New York Times, 2025)

More: Wikipedia (pl) Wikipedia (en)