Venetian masks, Venetian mirrors, Venetian canals … All this is associated with something mysterious, beautiful and mystical. Associated, perhaps, with the most unusual and beautiful city in the world - Venice.
But few people know about the small Venetian island of Poveglia, which keeps mysteries much stranger than the wonders of Venetian mirrors behind its ominous mask of inaccessibility.
But … everything is in order.
APPEARANCES ARE DECEPTIVE
The first mention of the island in historical chronicles dates back to 421 AD. e., when people from Padua and Este fled here to avoid becoming victims of the pogroms of the king of the Goths, Totila. On a small isolated island, refugees have found a safe haven. In the 9th century, it began to be actively populated.
In 1576, a bubonic plague attacked Italy, spreading the stench of hundreds of rotting corpses that had nowhere to go through the streets of Venice. As the disease gained momentum, a radical decision was made to bring to Poveglia Island not only the dead, but also the living victims of the Black Death, as well as those who showed signs of the onset of the disease.
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Still living people, including children and babies, were thrown into the pits along with the corpses. People were left to die in agony or burned alive on huge bonfires. In such a cruel way, they tried to stop the spread of the disease and protect the still healthy Venetians. More than 160,000 souls were killed on the island during the rampant epidemic.
In 1661, the descendants of the inhabitants of the island, who inhabited it in the 9th century, were offered to restore their settlement here, but they refused to do so. Over the years, there were repeated attempts to sell the island, but no one wanted to settle on it for any price. However, this is not surprising …
For a long time, Poveglia kept a mysterious silence and her land remained deserted. In 1777, the island became a checkpoint for merchant and passenger ships. In 1793, several cases of plague were recorded on two ships, and the island was converted into a temporary detention station for carriers of the dangerous disease. In 1814, the infirmary was closed.
In 1922, the buildings that survived on Povelje were transformed into the buildings of a home for the mentally ill, which sometimes included perfectly healthy people - enemies of Mussolini's fascist regime.
SHADOWS
The chief physician of a psychiatric clinic, out of a desire to satisfy his ambition (or sadistic inclinations?), Conducted experiments on patients. He decided to make a name for himself using new and not fully understood methods, which, moreover, were extremely brutal. So, the arsenal of doctors for performing a lobotomy included a hand drill, chisel and hammers. All operations on the skull and brain were performed without anesthesia.
Soon after the opening of the clinic, patients began to talk about hearing whispers echoing from the walls of the hospital, groans, crying. Some saw people on the territory of Povelya who seemed to appear out of nowhere and, engulfed in flames, burned down right before their eyes. But their stories, naturally, no one took seriously - you never know what they see or hear some crazy.
However, soon both the staff of the clinic and the chief physician began to observe the same thing - the voices and shadows of the victims of the plague who died in torment did not give anyone peace. A few years later, the chief physician himself died on the island under strange circumstances.
According to one version, he committed suicide for no reason by jumping from the bell tower. On the other, he was thrown down by his own patients, who could no longer tolerate the experimenter's bullying. But one of the nurses, who became an accidental witness to the event, claimed that after the fall, the doctor was still alive, and he died from a strange white fog that rose from the ground and, entering the body of the unfortunate, took his life.
According to rumors, it is known that his corpse was laid with bricks in the wall of the same bell tower, and at night you can still hear the ringing of the bell across the bay - they say the spirit of the doctor rings in it.
The hospital lasted until 1968, and the island, also used for agriculture, was completely abandoned.
NIGHT SCREAMS
Today Poveglia is closed to tourists and its ashen beaches remain deserted. Most boats do not enter the territory of the deadly island. The only ships that can be seen off the coast are police boats patrolling the coastal area and protecting it from no one knows who. Or - it is not clear who.
But there are daredevils, whose thirst for adrenaline is stronger than the fear of both the earthly and the ghostly guards of the island. Everyone who landed on the shores of the Poveglia told about the same thing: all the time they were on the island, they did not leave the feeling that they were being watched. And this feeling grew into panic, into an inexplicable and invincible desire to run.
Some talked about moving shadows, some heard screams, voices. Fishermen fishing in the island's line of sight talk about mysterious lights in the sky above it.
In early 2007, several desperate Americans made an attempt to travel to the island, as reported on their blog on the My Space website. Here is their story.
“When we swam to the terrible island, everyone was silent. A chill crept down the backs of everyone in the boat. The silence was broken by the voice of my friend: "Dude, my cell is turned off!" And he was not lying. As soon as we got close to the island, all of our mobile phones were turned off. I'm not saying that there was no reception - just the phone itself was turned off and could not turn on again. It felt like we went through an invisible energy field, because all the mobiles turned off at the same time.
The boat driver pulled up slowly and turned off the engine. I have to say that I have had some very scary experiences in my life and am usually quite cold-blooded when visiting such places. But Poveglia was definitely an island that felt like evil. Usually when you go to a haunted house, cemetery, etc., you feel like someone or something is looking at you, and this is generally not enjoyable. But the experience on this island was more than that.
"I feel like I'm in hell right now!" - so I thought. But we were determined, brushed all fears aside and jumped ashore to begin our exploration. The island was very dark.
The only light sources were the full moon and camera flashes when we took the photos. Povelya was frighteningly silent: no birds, no crickets, no animals - nothing. The silence was almost unreal. A searchlight in the bow of the boat glittered feverishly, casting light on the buildings in front of us. The boat owner was clearly very frightened. We went to the door of the main building and took some pictures. We wandered around the front taking photos for about 10 minutes. Someone suggested that we go inside, but the doors and windows were somehow closed.
We continued filming the structures and the ominous bell tower. And suddenly … "Ah-ah!" The worst scream I have ever heard in my life cut through the silence like a knife. We all froze. What have we heard? We looked at each other, stunned. The owner of the boat was beside himself with horror. We desperately jumped into the boat, the driver could not start the engine immediately.
Finally the engine started, and we quickly set off from the shore. The scream was still going on, it sounded like we were inside this scream, this heartbreaking voice. And as soon as we sailed from the island, the bell began to ring. This frightened us even more, because the bell in the tower is long gone! He was taken away after the island was closed.
As soon as we sailed a good distance from the island, all of our mobile phones turned on again … When I looked at the photos, I realized that we were filming a ghost! Not a ball or reflected dust particles, but a silhouette of a person who was not really there when we took this photo! I showed the picture to three different professional photographers and they couldn't explain what it was.
After we left the island, strange things began to happen to some of us … Some were uncomfortable all the time, others were tormented by crazy nightmares, others clearly heard the sound of falling drops in their homes …
Overall, I think Poveglia goes beyond just a haunted island, true evil lives in this place."
Maria MILYAEVA