Just off the coast of Venice lies a haunting piece of history that few have ever seen up close, and even fewer would dare to visit. Poveglia Island, often dubbed the “world’s creepiest,” is a place steeped in death, legend, and eerie silence.
The island is made up of three small sections: one full of crumbling, abandoned buildings (including an abandoned psychiatric hospital); another that once served as a military fort; and a third now so overgrown it’s barely visible.
Due to the dangerous condition of the structures, the Italian government has banned public access.
Only those with special permission, typically researchers or film crews, are allowed to set foot on the island, The Sun reports.
But it's not just the decaying architecture that gives Poveglia its chilling reputation. The 18-acre island has a dark and disturbing past.
In the 18th century, it was used as a quarantine station during outbreaks of the Black Death.
According to local lore, anyone showing even mild symptoms of the plague was forcibly taken there, often against their will, according to The Little House of Horrors.
It’s believed that over 160,000 people died on the island. Many were burned en masse in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading.
To this day, it’s said that more than half the soil is made up of human ash.
In later years, Poveglia housed a psychiatric hospital, and that chapter is no less grim.
With the island far from the public eye, rumors of disturbing medical experiments began to surface, The Mirror details.
Patients were allegedly subjected to inhumane treatments and left to suffer in silence.
In 2020, British urban explorers Matt Nadin and Andy Thompson defied the ban to film their journey through Poveglia for their YouTube channel, Finders Beepers History Seekers.
What they found was something out of a horror movie.
“It was really, really eerie,” Matt recalled. “Even our taxi driver was scared, not just of the police but of the place itself, he couldn’t get away quick enough."
“The island is so full of dark, dark history, a hell of a lot of people died there and you really get a sense of the horrors that took place there while you’re walking around.
"They burnt all the bodies and left them where they lay. The island has never really been cleared properly or anything so everything has just been left," he added.
At one point during their visit, the duo heard a bell ring across the abandoned island. “That actually freaked me out,” Matt admitted. “It felt like an omen.”
Despite the fear, he noted the strange beauty of the decaying buildings: tiled floors, arched hallways, and a haunting silence untouched by time, saying: "Nature has really taken over and it was really typical of a horror movie with all the vines and creepers."
He added: “Definitely an experience I won’t forget in a hurry."