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Charlotte Pedroz

FRIGHT NIGHT? TRY A HAUNTED HALLOWEEN IN ITALY

Believers in the paranormal have long claimed that Poveglia - a lonely island on the Italian coast - is the most haunted place in the world, due to its deep, unsettling past.


From 1776, for 100 years, the island was used as a quarantine site (#covid) for people with the plague and other deadly diseases. To add to this traumatized island’s history, it then later served as a twisted, sadistic mental hospital! The island’s isolation allowed doctors to do as they pleased, which many reports show resulted in the torturing of patients. Furthermore, one doctor believed that lobotomies (a type of brain surgery that involves severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain) were the ideal solution to many mental illnesses and performed the procedure on patients against their will. Somewhat luckily, however, this drove him to madness and he later committed suicide in the 1930’s. The asylum stayed open until 1968, causing 56 years of ghostly isolation and, although visitors to the island were prohibited, some thrill-seekers couldn’t deny their curiosity.


The island remains vacant even now.


So, there it lies on the coast of Venice, holding its dark and eerie secrets, and the answers to the provocative question: who, or what, is filling the space now?


Many paranormal-focused shows have dared to enter, and have reported an estimate of 160,000 tortured bodies scattered over Poveglia’s terrain. Some of these TV reporters claim to have heard “the tower bell that has since been demolished,” or “the screams of tortured patients”! Even some “tortured poets” escaped their department and have reported that “the suffering sounds of those close to death are heard in the soft whispers of the wind, and the hushed tones of horrifying histories appear loud and clear only by virtue of once being true.”


In 2014, the Italian state auctioned a 99-year lease of Poveglia, hoping that the buyer would redevelop the hospital into a habitable settlement. The highest bid was from Italian businessperson Luigi Brugnaro, who planned to invest €20 million euros into a restoration plan. However, the leases did not proceed because his project was judged not to meet all the conditions - or so it was said. Other sources suggested that the deal was terminated because the bid was too low.


Brugnaro initially fought the cancellation of the lease, but after he became mayor of Venice, he renounced any intentions to the island - suspicious much! Perhaps this haunted island wants to be left in peace, so it sent a few of its “habitants” to scare Luigi from completing the sale… What do you believe?


 

Read More about the “Island of Ghosts” below:

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