It is not possible for a person to live in Venice without having heard many lengthy tales about the ghosts of Poveglia Island located off the coast of Venice, Italy, which the Venetians call the “Ghost Island” because of its spooky past.

Where it is believed that there are more than 160,000 people who have been burned on that small island to eliminate the spread of the “black death” disease that swept Europe and among them were alive, and some reports from people who visited the island say that about 50% of the current island’s soil is ashes Human 

The ancient history of the islandIn the southern lagoon, between Venice and Lido, lies the small Italian island of Poviglia, with an area of only 7 hectares. For centuries, it was a refuge, a stronghold, a place of exile, and also a place of quarantine for the sick, the dying, and the dead.Boveglia welcomed its first inhabitants in the year 421 AD, who were a group of men, women and children who were fleeing the barbarian invaders who destroyed the mainland, and it was an ideal location for them for several reasons, including that the relatively small size of the island made it easy to defend and at the same time this size made it Not worth the trouble of invading armies 

For centuries this small community had lived in peace and avoided the laws and taxes of the mainland; However, its population dwindled and by the 14th century, during the War of Chioggia, the inhabitants of Poviglia were evacuated and moved back to Venice. The island, which had been destroyed, was abandoned again, during which time one of the octagonal fortresses was built on the island to protect Venice.

In the year 1348 A.D., the paponic plague reached Venice, and Poviglia and many other small islands were used as a quarantine colony. During that period, the disease killed 1 out of 3 Europeans.Fearing the unbridled spread of the disease, Venice exiled many of its citizens who showed symptoms of the disease to that island, and it was clearly a death sentence.In the center of the island, the dead and sick who could not protest were burned on giant pyres, and this included tens of thousands of Venetians who also died on the mainland.

And it wasn't the only time the sick were cremated on the island, it happened again in 1630 when the Black Death swept the city again.And this is not the only use of the island, but also its use for the darker purpose of storing weapons, as Napoleon felt and found the defensive location of the island suitable to host stores of gunpowder and weapons.

Poviglia Mental HospitalThe story of Boveglia did not stop at the isolation of plague victims. In the late nineteenth century, an asylum for the mentally ill was established on the island of Boveglia. This asylum was poorly built and was used as a place of exile rather than rehabilitation for the sick.

Follow the rest