The 'world's most haunted island' of Poveglia goes up for sale

Poveglia, the 17-acre island, was used to dump plague victims before housing a mental hospital.

By Dave Lancaster |

15:14 17 April 2014

The cash-strapped Italian goverment hopes to raise 500 million Euros from the sale of 150 or so state owned properties, the most controversial of which is the island of Poveglia. 

 

Claimed by some to be haunted and confirmed by history as having strong ties to disease, death and mental illness, Poveglia's history seems out of place amid its tourist trap surroundings between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. 

 

The island's 17 acres are uninhabited but not without their stories. 

 

During the 18th century it was used as a dumping ground and quarantine for plague victims - dead or alive. Later, in 1922,  it was the site of a brutal mental hospital operated by a derranged doctor who performed lobotomies using hammers and chisels before killing himself by plunging from the hospital tower after claiming to have driven to madness by the ghosts of his victims. 

 

Few have visited the island in recent years but a presenter of the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures claimed to have been possessed by evil spirits when he went there. 

 

The Telegraph stated that there are plans to turn the withering mental hospital into a grand hotel.