Poveglia Island (Italy) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.
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Poveglia Island is one of the most famous in the Venetian Lagoon, but this fame is very sad. The island is called one of the most terrible and “ghostly” places on earth. The first mention of it in written sources occurs in 421, when the island became a refuge for the Paduans fleeing the barbarian hordes. In 1379, when the city was stormed by the Genoese, the inhabitants of the island had to leave it, and from then on no one lived permanently on Poveglia. In 1645, an octagonal fortification was built on the island to cover the entrance to the lagoon, and it can be seen here today.
But it was not these episodes of history that brought Poveglia her tragic fame. At the end of the 18th century, an isolation ward was set up here for sailors who arrived in the city and were required to sit out 40 days of quarantine. The isolation ward operated for more than 20 years. And in 1922, a mental hospital opened on Poveglia, which was closed only in 1968. All this gives the island a not very serene aura - especially since the hospital building has still been preserved (there are ideas to open a hotel in it) . But there are also dramatic legends about Poveglia...
They say that the souls of the dead hover everywhere over Poveglia, and the island itself has earned the names “Cursed Land” and “Gates of Hell”.
Dramatic Legend No. 1 is as follows: back in ancient times Plague patients were exiled to the island. Epidemics " black death“Since then, a large harvest in Europe has been mowed down, and the dead were buried here to avoid infection, literally on top of each other. Ultimately, Poveglia became a giant grave, where, according to some estimates, up to 160 thousand unfortunates found their final refuge. They say that the souls of the dead hover everywhere over Poveglia, and the island itself has earned the names “Cursed Land” and “Gates of Hell”.
The second legend is no nicer than the first. According to eyewitnesses (rather dubious, but there is no doubt about the possibility of this - the attitude towards crazy people in those days made this quite possible), the insane in Poveglia were mocked with particular cruelty. Inhumane experiments were performed on the unfortunate people, and the shadow of past suffering covered the island for a long time. A chief physician hospital, driven mad by the ghosts of those tortured by him as a result of unanesthetized lobotomies, eventually jumped from the island bell tower.
As a result of all of the above, Poveglia is very attractive to fans of otherworldly horrors and other paranormal things. Psychics say that the concentration of mental darkness on the island is simply off scale.
Modern Poveglia, abandoned since the second half of the 20th century, is a small island partially built up with dilapidated buildings. The island stands in stark contrast to the Venetian opulence and luxury of the palazzos and piazzas just a few hundred meters away.
The most notable structure on the island is the cross bell tower, which was built in the 12th century and converted into a lighthouse in the 18th century. The bell tower belonged to the church of San Vitale, which was dismantled in 1806. The oldest building on the island is the ruins of a 12th century church.
Practical information
Poveglia Island is located just 200 m from the Lido Island, on its inner side. Tourist routes And public transport There is no provision for visiting Poveglia. Those wishing to visit here need to make a private arrangement with one of the local boatmen.
February 24th, 2014
When every person hears the word “Venice,” the same associations come to mind: gondolas, canals, water, carnival, masks... But this city is not as simple and welcoming as it seems at first glance: even it has its own mystical secrets. In the lagoon there is a small uninhabited island - Poveglia, which is guarded 24 hours a day by a marine patrol, and any outsiders are prohibited from entering there. This place is often called Bloody Island.
Why? The answer to this question must be sought in history...
Harbingers of mysterious phenomena
The island has many nicknames: “the gates of hell”, “a dump of pure fear”, “a haven of lost souls”. The Venetians are doing everything possible to refute the terrible rumors about Poveglia and cool interest in the island on the part of lovers of the mystical. They claim that they are not at all afraid of this place, and in discussions of its history they avoid the topics of a psychiatric hospital and plague epidemics. Not long ago, an article in one of the popular Venetian magazines stated that the hospital buildings dominating the territory are nothing more than former houses recreation for the elderly.
But as long as the island remains inaccessible to tourists, and its mysterious buildings slowly destroy reliable facts, rumors will spread like the wind.
This island was previously inhabited, and it was inhabited in the 5th century, when Italians fled here from barbarian raids. After another 900 years, fortifications were erected on Poveglia, which can still be seen when sailing close to this piece of land. Then the island ceased to interest people - the Doge offered it to the monks and for any other needs, but for some reason there were no people willing to live there.
Then the descendants of those who once inhabited Poveglia decided to rebuild the village there again, but then changed their minds, without explaining to anyone the reasons for this strange decision. For more than a century, this small piece of Venetian land was abandoned, deserted and unclaimed.
Everything changed when Europe was hit by the bubonic plague, which killed millions of people. It was then that inconspicuous Poveglia became a kind of death insulator...
Bloody Island or the last refuge
A lot has been written and said about the horrors of that time, but it is unlikely to modern man it is possible to imagine all the horror that was happening on the streets of European cities. All populated areas were littered with the bodies of dead people, spreading the stench and infection further... There was nowhere to put the dead, and then everyone remembered Poveglia again, making it a kind of isolation ward for victims of the plague. To stop the epidemic, not only corpses were brought to the island, but also living, affected people, leaving them there alone with their death, without help. People, including children and women, were thrown into pits along with their bodies or burned alive to stop the plague with fire. According to the most conservative estimates, more than 160 thousand people were forcibly killed here...
They say that this Bloody Island has not forgotten those times - the top layer of the earth consists of the ashes left after the burning of corpses, so in fact, the people who set foot there walked on corpses, and not reposed, not buried and not inveterate. Even fishermen do not dare to come close to the island, as they are afraid to find not only their catch, but also charred human bones in their nets.
Monstrous hospital for the mentally ill
Acting as an insulator, as it turned out, was the island’s destiny: in the 20th century it was again used for these purposes. In 1922, a hospital for the mentally ill was opened here, where at that time enemies of the current regime also ended up political regime Mussolini. The chief doctor of this place loved to conduct experiments on his “wards”, using latest methods cures that were more reminiscent of medieval torture.
Patients at the clinic often complained that at night they heard strange whispers, moans, crying and even screams. But who will believe the mentally ill? Some forced inhabitants of the island saw people appearing out of nowhere and burning right before their eyes, turning into a pile of ash. All these events went unnoticed until the hospital staff began to hear and see the same things as the patients. The chief doctor died two years later, falling from a bell tower, and the circumstances of his death have not yet been solved: either he committed suicide in a fit of madness, or he was thrown off by crazy people who were tired of enduring bullying.
The body of this cruel man was placed directly in the bell tower, which after that began to ring on its own, frightening everyone who was on this island. The hospital itself existed until 1968, after which all residents left the island, leaving it uninhabited. Now it is closed to tourists, and its territory is heavily guarded against unauthorized intrusion. Who is Poveglia being protected from? Or maybe the government is trying to protect people from it?
Evidence of mystical phenomena
But there are always extreme sports enthusiasts who dream of revealing the secret of Poveglia. The stories of people who risked landing on the terrible island, as a rule, coincide: being on Poveglia is invariably accompanied by an oppressive feeling of vigilant surveillance, which gradually develops into an inexplicable desire to escape as quickly as possible. Some brave souls said they saw moving shadows on the island, heard voices and screams.
In the middle of the 20th century, one fairly wealthy family received permission to visit Poveglia: they wanted to purchase the island for next to nothing in order to build there Vacation home. They planned to explore everything and spend the night there, but left before the sun rose. They did not comment on their escape, but one strange and frightening fact leaked to the newspapers: after returning, they immediately sought medical help - their daughter’s face was so disfigured that twenty stitches had to be put in. Who or what drove them off the island is unknown...
There is also “fresh” evidence. In 2007, several Americans decided to quench their thirst for adrenaline by illegally entering the scary island. They later posted a report on their journey on a blog on Myspace. Here he is:
« As we approached Poveglia, we did not feel like talking. Goosebumps crawled across the skin just looking at this place. And suddenly my friend broke the silence: “Dude, my phone isn’t working!” It turned out that he was telling the truth. All the cell phones went off – not just his. I don't mean there was no reception or anything like that. No, the phones simply switched off and we were unable to revive them. It was as if we had passed through some kind of invisible energy wall.
Finally we landed on the island. Here I must mention that I have a fairly strong psyche: I have visited such places of ill repute more than once and kept my cool. But on the island I felt creepy. It’s difficult to describe the sensations, I just felt some inexplicable evil that surrounded me. You know, when you walk through a cemetery at night or climb into houses that are rumored to be haunted, you feel like someone is watching you, and this, in general, does not bring comfort. But there was more to it than that. “This is probably how people feel when they find themselves in Hell,” my friend said, and I agreed with him. But we didn’t sneak into the protected area in order to escape in a minute, so we had to put all unpleasant feelings aside.
We made our way ashore to start exploring when the boat driver gave us a bit of a scare. I forgot to mention that he had no experience in this kind of work and simply took us to the place for a couple of hundred. So, the driver started waving his hands at us and shouting: “Come back soon! It's time to set sail! We couldn't leave him alone at our own risk - what if this guy panicked and left us on the island, so we decided to leave one of us to guard the boat.
The island turned out to be very gloomy. The silence weighed on my psyche. There were no animals, no birds, no crickets, nothing at all. It seemed that everything that was happening was unreal. We walked up to the main door and took some photos. In the light of the flash, we saw a huge room strewn with various debris. We wandered along the walls for about ten minutes, taking pictures like tourists. My friend suggested climbing inside the building, but the doors and windows were blocked by something. We continued filming the buildings and the bell tower, which, let me tell you, looked quite ominous.
And then there was a scream. It was the most terrible scream I have ever heard. We seemed rooted to the ground and were silent, trying to understand what it was. We were so shocked that we could not speak, and when one of us finally opened his mouth to make a guess, that terrible scream came again. We saw that our driver was simply beside himself with fear, so we rushed to the boat so that we would not be abandoned on this hellish island. I admit that I was also quite uneasy. And that's putting it mildly. For a while it seemed like the engine wouldn’t start, like in a horror movie, but it started and we quickly set sail from the island. These terrible screams still continued. I could not determine the source of the sound - it seemed that the scream was coming from all directions, surrounding us, and we were inside it. And then, when we sailed a little, the bell on that same bell tower began to ring loudly and clearly. This plunged us into even greater horror, because we knew that there was no bell on the tower - it was taken away when Poveglia was closed!
As soon as we moved away from the island, all our phones mysteriously turned on. And then it seemed like it burst through us: we talked and talked like crazy about what had just happened to us. When we returned to Vincenza, we immediately got down to business: we needed to take photographs and tell our story to the world. And imagine our surprise when we saw that we had caught something in the photo! It was a ghost - a clear silhouette of a man who, of course, was not on the island! I showed the photo to my friends - professional photographers, but they could not explain to me what was depicted there. Look closely and you too will see this ghostly guy.
I must also add that after this memorable journey, quite strange things began to happen to us. It was as if something had followed us from that island. Some simply felt uneasy, others suffered from terrible nightmares, and some clearly heard the sound of falling drops in their homes. They examined every inch of the apartment, checked the pipes, but found no water or leaks. And this did not happen in the same house and not with one person.
I still don’t know what secrets Poveglia hides, but I’m hesitant to call it just a “haunted island.” It seems to me that real evil lives there. Now I regret that we spent so little time there, I plan to return there again, but more prepared. I want to solve Poveglia, this is one of my goals in life.”
Guide to the island of Poveglia
The first thing you will see as you approach Poveglia is the bell tower. It is the most visible and one of the oldest structures on the island, other than the ruins of a 12th-century church that was abandoned and destroyed hundreds of years ago. In the 18th century, the tower was transformed from a bell tower into a lighthouse, and is now used only as a landmark. According to legend, it was from here that the mad doctor mentioned above threw himself.
Continuing further, you will see a strange octagonal defensive structure erected directly next to the island - this is the so-called “crystal or octagon”. It was built in the 14th century to repel Genoese attacks by the Venetians.
Having passed one side of the octagon, you find yourself in a narrow strait, above which, lost in a dense thicket of trees and bushes, rises the main building of the former psychiatric hospital. Of course, according to the Venetian authorities, the building could have been used for other purposes, but its gloomy appearance does not in any way encourage the idea of a rest home for the elderly. However, one historical documentary book says that in last years it was used as a homeless shelter.
The house was abandoned in 1968, and the island of Poveglia has been empty since then. Twenty years ago, in order to prevent complete destruction, the construction crew hastily erected scaffolding and left it there, which adds even more expressiveness to the already gloomy appearance. By the way, look at the photo below, if fishermen are so afraid of this place, then who puts nets here, evenly spaced along the concrete wall?
The function of a shelter for the poor and disadvantaged has only been fulfilled by the island of Poveglia in recent years. The first and main purpose of its existence is a quarantine station for sea travelers, one of three in the Venetian Lagoon. Lazzaretto Vecchio, the first establishment of its kind, opened in 1403, is located just a stone's throw from Poveglia.
The emergence of Lazzaretto (infirmaries) was due to urgent need. Plague and other diseases rampant in medieval Europe, especially in large shopping centers, which was Venice, presented a huge problem. And although no one in those days had any idea about germs and infectious diseases, people knew that isolating infected travelers and those who became ill could either prevent or reduce the severity of the epidemic.
According to Venetian law, travelers were required to undergo a forty-day quarantine in one of the Lazzarettos before continuing their journey and disembarking in the city. But this did not necessarily mean that the person would become infected and remain on Poveglia to await his death. Quite the contrary. Their stay was more like forced isolation: boring, although not always unpleasant. Most travelers were accommodated in separate rooms, ate well and drank often.
But during outbreaks of the black plague, one of which covered Europe in the 16th century, Poveglia really turned into hell. Everyone who had already become infected was exiled to the island, be it a commoner or a member of the nobility. It also happened when not only the sick, but also all healthy family members were sent into terrible exile. Thanks to such emergency measures, the number of victims in Venice amounted to only a third of the population, while mainland Italy lost two thirds.
In the midst of an epidemic, dying in large quantities people were put in common burial pits and burned. Undoubtedly, they are present on the island of Poveglia, although no one has undertaken to establish their location. Local historians believe that the part of the island reserved for growing crops was used for such purposes, and 50% of the soil there consists of the ashes of burnt corpses.
These are the discoveries revealed to builders digging the foundation on the neighboring island of Lazzaretto Vecchio...
But let's get back to the horror stories about the insane asylum, built in 1922, and its inhabitants. At least some of the buildings were indeed used as a hospital, as evidenced by the following inscription and the window bars, almost completely swallowed up by ivy and bushes.
A vague feeling of a hospital presence adds interior decoration rooms: dull, peeling paint, bunk beds and cornices torn from the walls. The picture is complemented by a small chapel with walls green with mold and broken benches, located in the same place.
The boundaries between internal and external space have been practically erased by time: the floor beams have collapsed, the ceiling and window openings have been covered with a dense wall of wicker.
The floor of one of the rooms is covered by one and a half centimeters with a thick carpet of book pages. Strange…
Tricky play on words...
In addition to living rooms, the fact that Poveglia was a hospital facility is evidenced by domestic premises, for example, an industrial kitchen and a laundry.
A little further away, behind the hospital walls, there are several houses, probably for staff accommodation. It may very well be that one of them actually belonged to the “crazy” doctor.
Poveglia Island, which is located in Italy, is one of the creepiest places on earth. Here is the real one ghost town, which are becoming more and more common these days. It seems that no one can be surprised by abandoned houses, villages and entire cities, but each of them is a special place that makes anyone, even the most critical person, feel excitement and even fear.
The abandoned ghost island is considered a real cursed place. The island was once a busy place. There was a shelter for the insane here and there is still a common grave for victims of the plague. And this despite the fact that the island is located in the Venetian Lagoon, some two miles from the palaces along the Grand Canal, where tourists from all over the world often like to relax. Not far from all the Italian splendor stands this abandoned and forgotten island for centuries.
There are terrible rumors about this place among the Italians themselves. It is not for nothing that it has several names, which are even more common among the people than the official one: “the gates of hell”, “a garbage dump of pure fear”, “a haven for lost souls” and so on. There are suggestions that 160,000 people died on this island and all of them are now, like spirits, ghosts, ghosts roaming the abandoned buildings of the station.
Legends of the island say that during the black plague epidemic, it was here that the dead were burned. As a result, half of Poveglia's soil consists of the ashes of burnt victims of the disease. Another legend says that at the beginning of the last century, inhumane experiments were carried out here on mentally ill people, and the chief doctor, having gone crazy himself, jumped down from the bell tower and crashed, joining the ranks of the island ghosts. Fishermen avoid this place, and residents advise under no circumstances to visit this place, although maybe all these are just rumors for tourists...
There is a world great amount gloomy and mysterious places. One of them is the island of Poveglia, located in northern Italy. There are many rumors around this island, which arose due to the bloody and mysterious history of this place. Online magazine Factinteres will tell you a little more about this island.
Poveglia Island is located in the Venetian Lagoon, in northern Italy. It is located just 5 kilometers from the mainland. The island itself consists of 2 parts, which are connected by one bridge. Unfortunately, people have not come to the island for many years and it is abandoned. This happened due to the rather bloody and mysterious history of this site.
A little history
The first mentions of the island of Poveglia date back to the 5th century AD. At that time, the island was inhabited by Italian refugees. In the 8th century, a second wave of refugees poured onto the island, which was associated with attacks by Lombard tribes. For several centuries the island has been a place of refuge from the problems on the Italian mainland.
In 1379-1381 the island was fortified with a fortress. This was necessary in order to protect the Venetian Lagoon from invasions from the sea. Until the 15th century, the island of Poveglia was quite empty. Mostly there were artillery fortifications, military personnel and sailors.
In 1777 the island was given to the Office of Health. At the same time, a hospital (Lazzaretto) and the Church of San Vitale were built here. It was then that all people suffering from the plague began to be brought to the island. Almost every patient lived out his life here. According to some estimates, about 160,000 people died here from the plague.
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In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the destruction of the church. Today, all that remains of it is a small chapel, which has been turned into a lighthouse. In 1814, the hospital was closed and all buildings on the island of Poveglia were used exclusively as weapons warehouses. This led to the fact that the Austrians tried very often to capture the island, but this never happened.
In 1922, the abandoned hospital building was restored and repurposed as a psychiatric hospital. The sickest people who could not possibly be hospitalized in ordinary hospitals of that time were brought here. Due to the remoteness and secretiveness of this hospital, doctors began performing horrific medical procedures on their patients. For example, patients were lobotomized, beaten, and starved. This led to a large number who died within the walls of this psychiatric hospital. Dead patients were buried in mass graves.
According to some reports, all experiments on patients were supervised by the chief physician of this hospital. Basically, the victims of his experiments were patients who were at least somehow “connected” with seeing ghosts, spirits, etc. In the end, the head doctor of the hospital himself went crazy and committed suicide.
In 1968, the hospital on the island of Poveglia was completely abandoned. Since then, no one has come to the island. However, there are brave souls who are not stopped by the sad and mysterious story of this island.
What now?
Today the island remains abandoned. You are afraid to come here even for a short amount of time. All due to the fact that past attempts to buy the island and live on it were not successful. For example, at the end of the 20th century, one family bought the island and even tried to settle here. However, on the very first night, their daughter was found beaten and bloodied. As a result, the girl received 14 stitches. It was not possible to obtain clear explanations from the girl and her parents, because... it all came down to the voices of spirits, crying women etc. The family, of course, left the island.
One of the most interesting and mysterious places on the island of Poveglia is the “Plague Field”. It was at this place that all the people who died from the plague were buried. According to some sources, about 55,000 people were buried here. The remaining victims of the plague were burned. Modern fishermen still try not to get close to the island. Some believe that grains of ash can carry the plague. Others simply do not want to catch the bones of people who died at that time in their nets. And such cases happened here quite often.
A quarantine station, a common grave for victims of the plague and, more recently, by historical standards, a shelter for the insane - the tiny island of Poveglia, hidden from view in the Venetian Lagoon, has acquired many unpleasant legends during its long existence. But today it stands empty: a sad collection of dilapidated and dilapidated buildings, eaten by nature, slowly disappearing into oblivion along with their secrets, just two miles from the luxurious palaces of the Grand Canal.
Terrible legends about the island of Poveglia appear like weeds and are taken by everyone on faith as a reliable story. They say that Poveglia was twice the last refuge for thousands of sick people during epidemics of the black plague, that its soil consists of 50% of the ashes of burnt corpses, that local fishermen avoid the island, afraid of finding a catch of wave-polished fish in their nets. human bones that in the 20s of the last century horrific experiments were carried out here on mentally ill people, that the head doctor of the psychiatric hospital ultimately went crazy from his actions and committed suicide by jumping from the island bell tower, and a very mystical version suggests that Poveglia is densely populated by the spirits of tortured victims. During the island's existence as a place of exile, approximately 160,000 people are believed to have died on it.
The island has many nicknames: “the gates of hell”, “a dump of pure fear”, “a haven of lost souls”. The Venetians are doing everything possible to refute the terrible rumors about Poveglia and cool interest in the island on the part of lovers of the mystical. They claim that they are not at all afraid of this place, and in discussions of its history they avoid the topics of a psychiatric hospital and plague epidemics. Not long ago, an article in one of the popular Venetian magazines stated that the hospital buildings dominating the area are nothing more than former rest homes for the elderly.
But as long as the island remains inaccessible to tourists, and its mysterious buildings slowly destroy reliable facts, rumors will spread like the wind. We will try to separate the truth and legends, from which the locals only shrug their shoulders dismissively.
Guide to the island of Poveglia
The first thing you will see as you approach Poveglia is the bell tower. It is the most visible and one of the oldest structures on the island, other than the ruins of a 12th-century church that was abandoned and destroyed hundreds of years ago. In the 18th century, the tower was transformed from a bell tower into a lighthouse, and is now used only as a landmark. According to legend, it was from here that the mad doctor mentioned above threw himself.
Continuing further, you will see a strange octagonal defensive structure erected directly next to the island - this is the so-called “crystal or octagon”. It was built in the 14th century to repel Genoese attacks by the Venetians.
Having passed one side of the octagon, you find yourself in a narrow strait, above which, lost in a dense thicket of trees and bushes, rises the main building of the former psychiatric hospital. Of course, according to the Venetian authorities, the building could have been used for other purposes, but its gloomy appearance does not in any way encourage the idea of a rest home for the elderly. However, one historical documentary book states that in recent years it was used as a homeless shelter.
The house was abandoned in 1968, and the island of Poveglia has been empty since then. Twenty years ago, in order to prevent complete destruction, the construction crew hastily erected scaffolding and left it there, which adds even more expressiveness to the already gloomy appearance. By the way, look at the photo below, if fishermen are so afraid of this place, then who puts nets here, evenly spaced along the concrete wall?
The function of a shelter for the poor and disadvantaged has only been fulfilled by the island of Poveglia in recent years. The first and main purpose of its existence is a quarantine station for sea travelers, one of three in the Venetian Lagoon. Lazzaretto Vecchio, the first establishment of its kind, opened in 1403, is located just a stone's throw from Poveglia.
The emergence of Lazzaretto (infirmaries) was due to urgent need. The plague and other diseases that plagued medieval Europe, especially in the large trading centers of Venice, were a huge problem. And although no one in those days had any idea about germs and infectious diseases, people knew that isolating infected travelers and those who became ill could either prevent or reduce the severity of the epidemic.
According to Venetian law, travelers were required to undergo a forty-day quarantine in one of the Lazzarettos before continuing their journey and disembarking in the city. But this did not necessarily mean that the person would become infected and remain on Poveglia to await his death. Quite the contrary. Their stay was more like forced isolation: boring, although not always unpleasant. Most travelers were accommodated in separate rooms, ate well and drank often.
But during outbreaks of the black plague, one of which covered Europe in the 16th century, Poveglia really turned into hell. Everyone who had already become infected was exiled to the island, be it a commoner or a member of the nobility. It also happened when not only the sick, but also all healthy family members were sent into terrible exile. Thanks to such emergency measures, the number of victims in Venice amounted to only a third of the population, while mainland Italy lost two thirds.
At the height of the epidemic, large numbers of dying people were placed in common burial pits and burned. Undoubtedly, they are present on the island of Poveglia, although no one has undertaken to establish their location. Local historians believe that the part of the island reserved for growing crops was used for such purposes, and 50% of the soil there consists of the ashes of burnt corpses.
These are the discoveries revealed to builders digging the foundation on the neighboring island of Lazzaretto Vecchio...
But let's get back to the horror stories about the insane asylum, built in 1922, and its inhabitants. At least some of the buildings were indeed used as a hospital, as evidenced by the following inscription and the window bars, almost completely swallowed up by ivy and bushes.
The interior decoration of the room adds a vague feeling of a hospital presence: dull, peeling paint, bunk beds and cornices torn from the walls. The picture is complemented by a small chapel with walls green with mold and broken benches, located in the same place.
The boundaries between internal and external space have been practically erased by time: the floor beams have collapsed, the ceiling and window openings have been covered with a dense wall of wicker.
The floor of one of the rooms is covered by one and a half centimeters with a thick carpet of book pages. Strange…
Tricky play on words...
In addition to living rooms, the fact that Poveglia was a hospital facility is evidenced by domestic premises, for example, an industrial kitchen and a laundry.
A little further away, behind the hospital walls, there are several houses, probably for staff accommodation. It may very well be that one of them actually belonged to the “crazy” doctor.
This staircase is in a building filled with some kind of ominous and frightening industrial equipment, the purpose of which is difficult to explain. It leads to the roof, where through the windows of small observation towers the opening is incredible beautiful view to the bay.
Some Russian travel writers mentioned this island in their stories.
Map of the island's location.