Haunted Venice: Poveglia and other islands of death in the Venetian Lagoon

(click για την Ελληνική βερσιόν...)

There are places on which Time has left intense scars, evident traces of its passage. Places with a particularly grim history ceaselessly recorded, day after day, for centuries in the atmosphere, the soil and the stones from old crumbling walls of structures that despite the wounds insist on standing... Such places, almost always, are accompanied by legends and stories horrible and macabre –because, such is the history that man leaves behind…  Tales where truth and exaggeration are so well mixed in the passage of time that it now seems an almost impossible task to separate one from the other…  

Night walk by the Venetian canals

Being one of the oldest best preserved Italian cities, Venice has an abundance of such buildings. What makes the city so special though is its unique architecture. Built on top of 118 islands, most of which, connected by multiple bridges over the canals that have been formed between the isles, Serenissima, along with its lagoon, are listed as UNESCO Heritage Monuments and are attracting millions of tourists, in every season. We had chosen this time of the year, in early December, anticipating that the crowds would be smaller in size, since most winter visitors would chose to arrive a couple of months later, when the city puts on (literally) its best costumes to celebrate the Carnival, for which Venice is so famous for. 

There should be no doubt that we too have a great love for Venetian masks, but in this case, our main destination was something else. …Poveglia, one of the small islands that lay at longer distance scattered in the lagoon and can only be approached by boat. A relatively small island (rather two, separated by a small canal), but a very special location, since it has the reputation of being ‘the most haunted island in the world’!

 

POVEGLIA ISLAND

A google search returns a plethora of articles reproducing the macabre history of the island and its dark legends. According to them, Poveglia is a place where hundreds of thousands of suffering people have left their final breath, after having been isolated there in times where the Plague had been sweeping the city. Most of them remain still buried in mass graves at some parts of the island, while the bones of the remaining that had ended up thrown in the lagoon still keep washing up on the shores, making the area around the island for the fishermen a place to avoid... Not only that, in the previous century, a Psychiatric Asylum was established on the island and this turned Poveglia to different type of ‘hell’ for the patients admitted there, when an evil Director decided to use them for his experiments. He followed some terrible and inhuman practices until he ended up a madman himself and died by jumping from the old belfry, the tower that today is the most characteristic historical remain on the island…  Others claim that the demonic doctor has not decided to take the jump voluntarily but was pushed out into the void by the victims of his torture. And according to yet another version of the tale, on hitting the ground he did not die instantly, but was suffocated by a strange mist that has appeared out of nowhere. Such are the tales of Poveglia according to the neo-mythology flourishing over the last few decades.  

From Charles Darwin's "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"

One can only wonder… Where does the truth ends and the lie begins?  It’s hard to tell, since despite the long history of the island (Poveglia is mentioned in historic accounts since as back as the 5^th century) the surviving documents are relatively limited. 

The island of Poveglia

According to them, the island had its permanent inhabitants until 1379 when, fleeing from the invading Genovese Fleet, they left it abandoned. In 1645 there were some additional defense works adding the octagonal fortification in front of the southern part, but the island remained abandoned until 1776. In that year, its ownership has passed to the Magistrato alla Sanita and it was immediately utilized as a terminal for the inspection of the vessels arriving in Venice. Especially after an appearance of the Plague on two vessels, it has begun being used as a ‘lazzaretto’, and so it remained until 1814. 

Poveglia in the 18th century

Later in the 19^th century it was re-used as a place for quarantine (in fact the word ‘quarantine’ itself was established by the Venetians themselves, from the forty –quaranta- days for which the potential visitors arriving from the sea were forced to wait, before receiving the green light to proceed to the city).  In 1922, it has become a Sanitary Hospital (a dettached Wing from Ospidale al Mare in Lido) which officially operated as Geriatric Convalescent home, but, as a small sign on an exterior wall of one of the surviving structures confirms, also included a Psychiatric Ward. 

Poveglia Sanitary Hospital in the 20th century, before being abandoned

Regia Stazione Sanitaria di Poveglia

The institution remained in operation until 1968, by that time it closed and since then the island has been left completely abandoned. In 2014, it was auctioned by the government for a long-term lease of 99 years, but the plan has proven unfruitful since the highest bidder did not seem to meet all the conditions. And today, even though maintenance works are under way, (and apparently temporary paused), as it is evident from the scaffolding placed to support the exterior walls of the main building and the barb wire, the island remains empty and abandoned, and maintains its otherworldly appearance… With the wild vegetation having literally exploded and swallowed the (11) structures that remain standing in ruins...  

The approach of the island is no simple task, it requires quite a search to find the person who will be willing to arrange the transportation there, certainly at a large fee. But this was something we had arranged prior to our arrival. The weather was freezing cold, but at least that morning the surface of the lagoon looked quite calm and this was the most important, since its condition was the only factor that could have stood in our way.   The boat we had hired for the next few hours was indeed waiting for us at the place of our meeting, in front of the Hospital…   

The cemetery island of San Michele

I don't know whether this could be taken as some sort of omen, but our embarkation took place right where the Venetians usually catch the water bus to the Isola di San Michele, the cemetery-island of Venice right opposite… But perhaps the stranger synchronicity was that the traditional fishing boat (sampierotta) on which we were now sailing across the Venetian canals with the direction of the South part of the lagoon had the name ’Mora’! (-the Greek word for ‘nightmare/old Hag’, a subject I have spent several years dealing with...)

We had crossed the entire canal of the Gardens (Rio del Giardini) that led us to the lagoon and continued South between the long larger island of Lido and the various smaller scattered islets, keeping within the marked route at safe distance from the shallow water. Despite the freezing breeze that, along with the persisting cold that kept troubling me, seemed to have followed us from the Alps, the excitement was evident in our eyes, ever since the ‘haunted’ belfry had first come into sight...

And as we approached, it grew larger, as did the highest structure remaining on the island, from where some claim that they can still hear the sound of bells, even though they have vanished since the early 19^th century, when Napoleon’s army have destroyed the Medieval church of San Vitale and turned the belfry to a lighthouse…

The tower that was initially the belfry of San Vitale

Reaching our destination after an hour of sail through the canals and the lagoon, we could feel the satisfaction for a major target that was being achieved, a dream that was finally coming true. The moments are still vivid as we sailed in the narrow canal between the two islets that form Poveglia, until we reached the other side, and approcached a small dock with a few stairs where disembarkation looked easier.  

Recalling the scene, as we sat there curled from the cold, on the long wooden boat that appeared to be floating upon the lagoon, with the skipper standing above us, trying to navigate it closer by stairs, to ensure our safe disembarkation on an island that the legend has turned to a synonym of death, I think it wouldn't be hard to compare it with that of 'the boat of Charon', by Jose Benlliure...

After relaying to us some of the macabre tales of Poveglia, the ferryman (who incidentally had been paid in advance) told us that he would not wish to exit the boat, and would rather wait for us there. The only assurance he asked from us was that we would not go to the upper floors of the building, since most of the stairs are severely damaged and could easily collapse. 

I asked him whether he believed the place to be ‘haunted’. He replied that even though he had never had any strange experience, he considered that all this long dark history is more luckily to have left an imprint of some energy there and he felt that had to respect all the souls that had suffered there. 

We turned and look up front… A few meters from the dock stood the central building of the old Hospital. We lingered no further and followed the path to the entrance of the main structure. The wire that at some time must have been discouraging any entry had been cut open freeing the way. A few more steps and…, finally we were in! 

As we both have a long experience from urban explorations of abandoned buildings from various periods, the first impression that we got from the inside was in no way unfamiliar... The place was in a state of decay, clearly looted both by man and by time… Tons of dust, broken plasters and debris on the floor, shattered around broken pieces of furniture and other garbage. Some steps on the stairway leading upstairs were totally broken. And on the walls the usual grafitti... We continued on to the other rooms that became darker as we were moving away from the entrance and the rays of the sun would reach there with more difficulty… 

Then all of a sudden, I found myself against a sight that has left me...startled! In front of me, an extraordinary projection was taking place... A strange game, probably of some reflection (the logical answer we have agreed to with Maria) obviously coming from the surface of the water of the lagoon that went through some opening, a door or a window, traveled though the rooms and finally ended there, on the opposite wall, where it produced a weird 'dancing' shadow-play… A projection of light that appeared to form figures that trapped in a continuous swirl constantly changed pattern!…

                                                                                     Teaser with a video capturing of the projection...

Mesmerized by the strange sight before me I kept starring at the image and moment by moment, I watched it changing... As if what we were seeing was not something flat on the wall, but a 3d projection, a whirling hologram, or a mist pulsating there, from which live shapes were struggling to form and break free!… A spinning, flexible mass that in one instant it was amorphous and the next it was a face being formed and then it begot a head and limbs and became a spinning human silhouette!...

A series of frames from the video

Consequent frames from the video where a face appears to be formed...

I stood there for some time observing the phenomenon, starring at the whirling image almost in a trance, like an excited potential parent watching the forthcoming baby in an ultrasound recording... And at the same time, I was filming it with each one of the cameras I had carried along. The handicam that I kept in the right hand, the mirrorless camera, the compact camera set to capture infrared, and the other one recording in full spectrum (UV+normal+IR). Perhaps a spectral range beyond the one that the naked eye can observe would reveal more details… 

A photo captured by the full spectrum camera -in b/w filter...

 

Or perhaps it was nothing more than a plain reflection… A camera obscura formed by nature. But it was awkward, as there was no visible ray of light crossing the room and ending at the projection, as one would expect… And that constant movement due to the motion of the slightly wavy surface, creating this 'pulsing' image which looked so similar to the spinning clay as it changes shape, as the sculptor is trying to achieve the desirable shape…

I was finding it difficult to leave the spot, but the minutes were passing and Maria had already moved on, and it wasn’t safe for us to split in such an unfamiliar place. Besides, we were still at the beginning. So leaving the phenomenon behind, I too moved on to the next rooms, trying to catch up…

The doors leading outside from the building were free from any wire. From there the path continued to the other buildings and the rest of the island -or rather at least the accessible part... I walked out, and the view was unbelievable!… What might once have been a garden has now grown to a forest, as the lush vegetation had literary swallowed the ruined structures… A real tropical jungle!

It was so dense that even though the sky was clear and it was almost noon, the whole place remained in the shadow, making the colors darker. It really was a sublime sight...

And the atmosphere intense, keeping you alerted. For a moment or two, I felt rather nervous and sort of unease, as if exposed to eyes that could be watching me from some place, hidden – but that could easily have been a game of the mind that remained in alarm mode, at least until I would become more familiar with the area, until I could feel assured that there was no other –person, for a start- apart from us present there...  

We continued to wander around the rest sections of the building and then continued to the other, smaller units. We saw a few rusty chairs, and other decaying furniture… 

At the front part of one room the roof had collapsed falling on old hospital beds that until 50 years ago where hosting patients… 

A part of the roof has collapsed creating a dramatic set

Dominant above all the lush vegetation… Everything appeared to have surrendered to it. A few meters away from the structures the trees and bushes were growing so thick that they had formed a natural barrier beyond which there was no easy access to the rest of the island -unless one carried a machette... 

The garden of Poveglia Hospital probably by mid 20th century. Now a dense forest.

But there were still other places to explore in the accessible section, and time was passing by so fast… We had reached one end of the island at the ruins of the building where, if the claims of our boatman had been accurate, there must have been the ovens where they used to burn the dead bodies… 

Avoiding some tree logs that had fallen on the way, we walked up the stairs and entered the building… The rooms were totally empty except for parts of the collapsed roof that had fallen on the ground and all that remained was debris. Instead of doors and windows thick tree branches like poisonous veins that have captured the building, sucking any remaining life out of it… Some windows underneath revealed the presence of a basement but trees had grown out of them too, and any access had long disappeared… 

We turned to the other side of the island to explore another section of the complex… The stairways leading to the first floor looked rather dangerous and we decided to keep our promise. 

More furniture, a bookcase fallen on the floor, even a bathtub in the middle of the room preserved in almost neat condition... 

I followed Maria through the door to the room that was in the tower of the old belfry, now completely vacant, with a vertical stairway on the side wall for anyone willing to take a chance and climb.

We were already running late. Coming out from the door where we had initially entered, I followed the wall of the building to the right, where a few steps further it stopped to a fence. There, among the bush there were several scattered bones... Maria who is more experienced in distinguishing them said that they were from some animal. On a desert, isolated isle like this, this of course was even more awkward. 

Animal bones in one corner in front of the main building

After having spent approximately 2 or 2,5 hours in the exploration of the island, we were back to the dock. I never thought I would ever say this, but thankfully…Mora was still there. 

Exhausted from the excessive cold, but satisfied from the experience we had just lived, even if we knew that we would actually need to have twice the time to seek access to the rest, most difficult to reach parts of Poveglia, we got into the boat and took the way back. The exploration of legendary Poveglia had, for now at least, been completed. Yet our trip would have yet other excitements to give… 

                                                                    The video from our exploration of Poveglia...

But after this experience we might be able to attempt a better separation between the legends attributed to Poveglia and reality.

And to begin with, the claim that fishermen avoid the island because of the human bones that every so often are washed out to the shore can easily be rejected, since -whether there are actually such bones buried in the muddy bottom of the lagoon or not- the very first thing that we had noticed upon reaching the island was a fishing boat anchored close to it…   

There is no doubt that Poveglia really has a dark and perhaps sad history especially in the latest periods, although the legends concerning the Plague victims on the island have not been entirely substantiated. The numbers that according to some claims are being alluded to these victims (some have suggested more than 160,000 dead) are probably very much exaggerated and may rather concern the total numbers of the victims that were left in the area of Venice after the visit of the Black Death, that as with the rest of Europe, had claimed a large percentage of the population, especially during the outbreak of the plague in 1576 and 1630, in a time however that Poveglia was yet to be used as a lazzaretto… 

Maria puts on the mask and the costume for the needs of our photoshoot, and for a moment becomes a 'Plague Doctor'...

In fact, it is even doubtful that the archetypal figure of the Plague Doctor with the peculiar long beak mask (that we too had brought along for a photoshoot) has ever been used on Poveglia, since during the period where people remained there on quarantine its use had already fallen away… 

LAZARRETTO VECCHIO - LAZZARETTO NUOVO

Other islands, such as the neighboring Lazzaretto Vecchio, (since 1423) and Lazzaretto Nuovo (since 1468), in the Northern part of the lagoon, have operated as places of quarantine and isolation for a much longer period and as such, they have received far larger numbers of infected people, most of them taking the gondola trip with no return… Lazzaretto Nuovo, that is open to visits during the summer months holds an archeological site with excavations still in progress. A few years ago a strange finding in one of the digs had rapidly caught the media’s attention. It was a female scull with a brick stuck in the mouth – the case that became virally known as ‘the vampire of Venice’. 

Both at the ‘New’ and the ‘Old’ Lazzaretta it is true that mass graves have been found with hundreds or perhaps thousands of skeletons. On Poveglia however there are confirmed records of only 20 persons that have become victims of the plague and have been buried in its cemetery, when the disease was found on two ships (1783, 1799). There could be more cases, of course, unaccounted or missing from the available historical records (-there is a reference from 1833 to a delegation for the construction of a new cemetery on the island to a man named…Giovanni Mora!), but still the number will probably not be anywhere close to such claims.

On our way back, we did try to reach Lazzaretto Vecchio, but because of the low tide and the lack of time we could only approach at a distance of a few meters…  A visit on the island would still be quite interesting, even though, at present it remains a forbidden zone…

Lazzaretto Vecchio. The earliest quarantine island of Venice

But the tales of the horrible experiments performed on patients in Poveglia by the evil psychiatrist are also legends and even though a Psychiatric Ward is known to have actually operated on the island from 1922 to 1968, there seems to be no historical record of any mal-treating psychiatrist.   Perhaps the origin of these tales could be traced to the neighboring islands of San Clemente and San Servolo which at that period hosted the main Psychiatric Centers of Venice, but at present both have been fully developed and utilized in a different manner… According to some source, at San Clemente, (that presently houses a luxurious hotel), Mussolini has had admitted his first wife. 
The Asylum at San Servolo was even older and has been in operation as Venice’s main Psychatric Center for more than 250 years (1725-1978). Today the island features a ‘Museum for the Insane’, reminding of its grim history, while the remaining buildings of the old Asylum have now become the premises of Venice International University, and also, a hotel. And this is exactly where we had planned to spend the next night.

SAN SERVOLO

Under a soft, melancholic rain, we had picked up our luggage from the old palazzo by the Bridge of Sighs where we had spent the first couple of days, and after crossing St. Marco square, we continued to the buoy to catch the water bus no. 20...

The ride was very short and in a few minutes we were among the very few passengers getting off at the certain stop. The contradiction was immediately obvious... From the large crowds and the noisy shops in the streets and the long queues in front of the main attractions at St. Marco, in ten minutes, we found ourselves in the total calm and silence…

The whole isle is surrounded by a wall that ends at the very tip of the water and allows views of the various parts of the lagoon only at specific spots, maintaining in that way the sense of an isolated Institution. The shape of it is trapezoid, with the main University buildings occupying the northern and southern sides, while the remaining larger part in the middle have been developed to a well tended park with some rare trees and flowers.

The island of San Servolo

From the main path that one would need to follow no more than 15-20 minutes to complete a full tour around the island, a shorter path leads to the building in the center of the park and the island… A two storey building that in the past housed the patients’ dormitories which have been renovated and are now used as the hotel lodgings...

San Servolo Psychiatric Asylum (archive photos)

The decoration of the rooms and the selected furniture are rather too basic for the standards of the luxurious City, and thus maintain a ‘campus’ character – which on account of the University is most likely exactly how they are being used. But even so, the total absence of life (the only other person we had met in the building that evening was the hotel night porter that had answered out call to check that thermostat was properly working) made the whole place look as a suspense movie set! Especially at night, with the moisture from the evaporating rain forming a thin mist upon the island and slightly covering the light of the bulbs in the park…   

Behind the University building and the reception of the hotel next to the water-bus station, a hidden yard led to the old church that has given the name to the island (initially a Dominican monastery) as well as the Museum of the Insane. In the winter season the museum operated only for a couple of hours during working days, excluding bank holidays and weekends, and since the day we had arrived was Friday and a bank holiday, despite our efforts, unluckily we were not able to visit it. We did follow however the stairs to its entrance where we were able at least to see the first part of the exhibition, with wall plates describing the history of the hotel and the Asylum.

 

Entrance of the Museum for the Insane

Of particular interest was an account of the Psychiatric Hospital scandals that became publicly known in the beginning of the 20th century, and particularly of the one reffering to Father (Dr.) Minoretti who following an investigation carried out by Prof. Belmodo was dismissed from the Office of Director of San Servolo mainly as a result of the ‘barbarous means of compulsion’ that he was found to practice.  This case received enough publicity and came to be known as the ‘Minoretti scandal’. ...Could the legend of the horrible Director of the Psychiatric Ward in Poveglia be a distant memory of the certain Director of the San Servolo Asylum, Dr. Cesare Camillo Minoretti?...   

But memories from the past were also coming to life at another part of the island in a small garden in front of the cafe, through an outdoor exhibition with portraits of people that have been hospitalized here in the last century…

Ftom Anne-Karin Furunes' exhibition, Back to Light: Faces Reflecting the Past at San Servolo Insane Asylum

Until 1978. On May 13th of that year, Law 180 came into force, terminating the operation of Asylums for the care of chronic psychotic patients in Italy. It is also known as 'Basaglia Law' from the name of the Director of the Psychiatric Center in Trieste and one of the main protagonists in the reformation of the public care for the mentally ill. It was with his encouragmeent that photographer and cinematographer, Raymond Depardon had collected rare footage, and through the documentary 'San Clemente', and more recently, the photographic album, Manicomio, he shared with the outside world very powerful and dramatic images, glimpses from the life of the patients in various Psychiatric Asylums in Italy, including San Clemente and San Servolo.

Writing these lines, I realize that the first time I have found myself in Venice, still a small child during a cruise with my family, in the summer of 1977, both these Hospitals were still in operation… So close to the San Marcos square that since that time was crowded with thousands of tourists just like ourselves, and at a distance of less than ten minutes with the boat there was another, hidden world.  A world so much darker… 

The area of San Marco from San Servolo. It looks not very gar but it's like another world...

 Forty years had passed, and yet there was a feeling of melancholy and of darkness underneath the thin layer of the paint during the restoration... Perhaps the atmosphere would be quite different in another time of the year, when the place was more crowded with students and visitors (although I had read similar observations on the internet by others who had stayed at this hotel). But now, with that freezing cold there were but a handful of people to meet while taking a walk around the island. And this feeling of isolation made easier to ‘see’ the place as it was before the modern improvements…  We really felt like visitors at some Institution and it would not really come to a surprise for us, if during the night we suddenly heard voices or screams of the patients… 

From a photoshoot in our hotel room, at San Servolo

Our stay at San Servolo was an experience just as important as the exploration of the legendary island with the familiar tower that could easily be distinguished the next morning at short distance.

In the center, the island of Poveglia, view from San Servolo

 If the legends of the ‘Hell-Asylum’ of Poveglia were a distant echo of the memory of the Father Minoretti, the Fallen angel of San Servolo, or from some other dramatic story that may have occurred in one of the islands in the lagoon, it was almost shocking to realize that this and other similar stories have been happening for tens or hundreds of years right here, at the place where we stood…  

A HAUNTED ISLAND, OR RATHER A…HAUNTED LAGOON?

As our trip to Venice was reaching to its end, having visited all these strange places in person, having stood in front of Ca' Dario, by the Grand Canal, the cursed palace which is said to bring death to its every owner, having got lost after midnight in the labyrinthine alleys, walking under the cold gaze of the grotesque faces that for centuries now silently watch the walker pass by the palazzo that they guard, having wandered around some of the islands with all that tragic history, in the lagoon,  I asked myself… Is Poveglia finally standing to its reputation?

Ca' Dario. The 'cursed' palazzo that is said to bring death to its owners

Traditional Venetian faces used to guard the houst from evil spirits

Sure, the legends attributed to the island may be exaggerating, (but this is usually what legends do anyway), and perhaps some of them have been born at some other neighboring place, in the same lagoon that until a few decades ago could separate, but also bridge a city wealthy and bright, always a popular destination for tourists, aristocratic enough to keep attracting the high society, with a world that for centuries remained hidden from the lights, a real dystopia… 

There are indeed so many other haunting places in the area that most people have never even heard of, and in that way, it may be considered rather unfair for this secret part of Venice, the island of Poveglia to draw the sole interest of those seeking the strange and the fans of alternative / dark tourism.  As far as the atmosphere and the sublime feeling that produces the view of the ruins buried under 50 years of wild vegetation, I think Poveglia really has something unique- at least until it too becomes a modern hotel.   
Judging from my personal experience?... The sense of invisible threat that I have felt at the place was probably a subconscious effect of the suggestive environment. The mysterious reflection though that seemed like a swirling cloudy mass (bringing to mind the strange mist that according to legend has swallowed the mad-doctor) certainly had more interest.

I still wonder, exactly what was that we had witnessed. Why are there no other similar video recordings from others that had visited the ‘haunted’ island seeking mysterious phenomena?… (I know several members from modern ‘ghost hunting’ teams that would be eager to claim that the  Plague Doctor, or the spirit of insane people has appeared to them, had they seen the same)

Even if the phenomenon was natural, even if was caused by the watery surface of the lagoon that created these strange bright silhouettes on the wall simply by reflecting the rays of the sun, how could these shapes be explained?

Could it have been only some mind game? Pareidolia? Or was it human-like silhouettes, forms that the place itself seemed to recall and by any possible natural means try to recreate? ….Simulacra… That did remind me of my experience a few years ago at another ‘haunted’ place… That of Loch Ness…The spirit of the place finds all probable and improbable ways to manifest. As long as there is an observer to witness the experience.

The shapes formed on the walls… Projections created from a strange game of rays of light reflected from the surface of a lagoon haunted by its own past… Bright silhouettes dancing on the wall, the opposite of shadows… And, those who know me well are aware..., shadows are not always as innocent as they seem.