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Poveglia Island | Plague Pits, Asylums & Demonic Hauntings · Mystery Archives Episodes

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There is a place in the Venetian lagoon where boats will not
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dock, where fishermen will not cast their Nets, and where no
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tourist dares to wander. It lies silent beneath a tangle
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of vines and ash, hidden in plain sight just South of
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Venice. On clear days you can see its
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crumbling bell tower rising like a broken finger from the water,
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beckoning warning. This is Poveglia Island.
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To some it's the most haunted place on earth, to others it is
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simply cursed. For over 1000 years, Poveglia
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has absorbed everything humanity fears most.
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War, plague, madness, fire, isolation and death. 10s of
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thousands of people, perhaps over 100,000, were dragged here
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to die, like victims were burned in open pits, mentally ill were
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abandoned and crumbling wards. And according to generations of
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whispered accounts, something else lingered.
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Something not human. You may not believe in curses,
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you may not believe in demons, but after Pavaglia, you just
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might believe in something. Long before the name Pavaglia
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became synonymous with plague, madness, and death, it was
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simply an island of sanctuary. The earliest historical mentions
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of Pavaglia Island date back to the year 421 AD, during one of
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the most turbulent eras in Western Europe's history, the
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final collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
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Italy, fragmented by warring barbarian tribes and devastated
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by successive invasions, was no longer a place of imperial order
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and civility. The once proud Roman cities of
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the Venetio region, Padu Este and Altino, had become targets
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of Visigoth, UNIC, and later Lombard Raiders.
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The marshy lagoons to the east, however, offered something that
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the mainland could not natural protection.
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The Venetian lagoon and expanse of shallow salt water dotted
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with muddy islets and reeds acted like a defensive barrier.
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Raiders on horseback could not easily maneuver in these kinds
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of waters, and naval attackers had little patience with a maze
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of channels. And only local fishermen knew
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how to navigate. It was in this precarious
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historical moment that Paveglia first became inhabited.
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Families fleeing the chaos of the mainland carried what few
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possessions they had and rowed eastward and flat bottomed
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boats, seeking any land not yet overrun by fire and sword.
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Among the many Islanders they settled, Murano, Torchillo and
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Burano was the humble of Popeilia, the name being derived
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from the Latin word Populus, meaning Poplar tree.
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The island was small, barely 17 acres, and it's high central
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ground and easy access to fish rich waters made it suitable for
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modest settlement. Wood instilled houses were
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erected, clustered together on the firmest patch of ground.
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These early settlers lived off lagoon fishing, salt extraction
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and limited agriculture on raised garden plots.
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Their lives were humble, but they were safe, and this
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foundation would quietly grow over the centuries.
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By the 9th century, Pavaglia had become a recognizable community
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within the broader lagoon world. While Venice itself was rising
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to international prominence as the center of commerce and naval
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power, Pavaglia remained relatively provincial, a fishing
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village, independent but tied closely to Venetian authority.
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During this time, the Republic of Venice established a network
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of administrators over the lagoon, including the
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installment of Podesta's or governors, to oversee specific
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islands. The Vaglia received its own
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podesta, suggesting a certain level of population density and
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economic growth. The island was now governed as a
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minor administrative district with the growing Republic of
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Venice. In 1379, the Republic of Venice
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faced an existential threat, a full scale war with its rival
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maritime empire, the Republic of Genoa, known as the War of
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Shigogia. This conflict was not just about
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territory or trade, it was a struggle for control over the
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Mediterranean itself. The Jianese fleet launched
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daring raids across the Venetian lagoon towns.
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Islanders, once thought untouchable were suddenly in
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peril. Fearing bombardment or
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occupation, the Venetian authorities ordered the complete
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evacuation of Paveglia. The Paveglia Goatee packed up
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their lives, clothing, their tools, religious icons, even
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livestock, and boarded gondolas, fishing boats and cargo barges
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under escort from armed guards. They were relocated to Guadeca,
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a larger island closer to the protective walls of Venice
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itself. The war would end in 1381, with
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Venice barely victorious, but Pavaglia was not so lucky.
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When the former residents returned, they found their homes
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raised or looted, their fields salted or burned, and many of
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their graves desecrated, as well as booby trapped wells and pits
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left by retreating enemy forces. The Venetian government declined
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to fund reconstruction. The people of Pavaglia,
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demoralized and impoverished, chose not to return.
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Pavaglia was no longer a home. It had become a scar.
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In 1527, the Doge Andrea Greedy offered the island to the
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Camaldiles monks, known for their quiet devotion and
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hermetic traditions. But after a brief inspection,
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the monks declined their offer, stating that the island was too
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damaged, remote and spiritually heavy.
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In 1661, Venice tried again. Surviving descendants were
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invited back with promises of land titles, trade advantages
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and tax exemptions, but the former villagers declined once
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more. By the end of the 17th century,
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vaguely, it was almost entirely abandoned.
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Vines overtook the houses. The Church of San Vitali began
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to rot, its wooden beams collapsing.
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The bell tower, strangely untouched by time or war, became
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a silent watchtower, and fishermen began avoiding the
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island, swearing that it was cursed and still.
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The real horror had not yet begun.
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The vagueliest fall from rural haven to Death Island was not
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swift, but when it happened, it was absolute.
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By the mid 1500s, peaceful days of its residents were long past.
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The Church of San Vitali stood an eerie silence.
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Overgrown paths snaked between collapsing buildings.
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The island, once full of life, had returned to marsh and Moss.
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But in the eyes of the Venetian Republic, it was not forgotten.
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It had strategic value, just not for the living.
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Venice in the 16th century was rich beyond measure.
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Gold flowed in from the East. Art, culture and architecture
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flourished, and an unmatched Renaissance bloom.
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But this wealth came at a cost exposure.
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Venetian ships traded across the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and
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North Africa, and with them came disease, most notably the
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bubonic plague. The plague known as the Black
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Death had first devastated Venice in 1348, but more
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insidious waves struck in 1575 to 1577 and again in 1630.
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In each case, the death tolls were staggering.
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The 1575 outbreak alone killed more than 50,000 people, which
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was nearly 1/3 of Venice's population at the time.
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Faced with this horror, Venice became one of the first
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governments in Europe to implement an organized
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quarantine policy. Entire islands were designated
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as Lazaridi, or places where the sick and suspected could be
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isolated from the healthy. Lazarito Vicchio near the Lido
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and Lazarito Nuovo were the first, but by the late 1500s
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even those were full. The Republic needed another
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place to send the dying, and they chose Paveglia.
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The plague pits on Paveglia are unmarked, undocumented in any
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elegant script, but they are very real.
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Archaeological studies and local legends agree the islands served
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as an emergency dumping ground during major outbreaks.
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Corpses were fared there in large barges from the city's
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overloaded hospitals and churches, and those too sick to
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recover but not yet dead were sent there as well.
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Historical Venetian health ordinances describe rapid
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transfer of the symptomatic to isolation islands.
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If a household reported fever, it could be detained and sent to
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Pavaglia within 24 hours, often with no chance to protest, and
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sometimes entire families were sent based on a single cough or
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rash. The horrors of these transfers
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cannot be overstated. There was no medical care
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provided to these people beyond crude herbal pouches and
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religious riots. The sick were dumped into
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makeshift wooden structures or even into open air barracks
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where they'd be exposed to the elements.
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There was no burial service that bodies were collected with hooks
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and thrown into mass graves. When the bodies overflowed, they
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were burned in great pyres. The smoke became visible from
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the canals of Venice. A report from 1582 by the
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Venetian Council of 10 mentioned the island of Pavaglia is to be
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used for the disposal of the pestilent dead by fire.
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This mandate was repeated again in 1630 when another major
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outbreak crippled the city. Local oral traditions add an
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even more macabre detail. The soil of Pavaglia turned
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black from the ash of cremated human remains.
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Some archaeologists estimate that over 50% of the island's
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topsoil is composed of burned bone, flesh, and ash from plague
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victims. Even more haunting, the bones
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still continue to wash ashore to this very day.
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By the 1700s, Paveglia's reputation was sealed.
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The island was now firmly associated with death, so much
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so that the Venetian Health Authority officially designated
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it as a quarantine checkpoint in 1776.
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Every ship entering Venice had to stop at the Vaglia before
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proceeding. Medical officers boarded the
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vessels and inspected the crew and cargo for signs of disease.
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If even a single person was sick or if documents showed previous
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docking at a plague afflicted port, the entire ship was seized
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and the passengers were detained on Pavaglia for up to 40 days.
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This practice gave birth to the modern word quarantine, which is
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derived from the Italian word orenta giammoni, which means 40
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days. Facilities were hastily
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constructed. They included isolation
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barracks, stone inspection buildings, docking platforms for
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incoming ships, wards for the dying, and a rudimentary
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incinerator for the bodies. The old Church of San Vitali,
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which had long since been abandoned, was raised to make
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room for these structures. The bell tower, however,
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remained and was retrofitted into a lighthouse.
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For decades, the Vaglia operated as a full quarantine colony,
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became known among the Venetians as the Port or Gate of Hell.
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In 1797, Venice fell to Napoleon Bonaparte, and under French rule
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the quarantine system was expanded.
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The new regime, more militarized and ruthless, used Pavaglia for
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plague victims, military deserters, and prisoners with
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illness. The French not only burned the
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bodies, but they conducted mass burials using lime and sealed
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tombs. There are rumors that Napoleon
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also hid munitions on the island, using its isolation to
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store explosive stockpiles. 1 Skirmish is said to have
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occurred near Paveglia in 1805, when enemy forces discovered the
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French weapons depot and tried to seize it, though little
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documentation remains. Multiple oral histories from
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Venice's lagoon communities recall cannon fire near Paveglia
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during this time, and even more deaths.
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By 1814, Napoleon's empire had fallen and the Austrians retook
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control of Venice. The plague had all but
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disappeared due to vaccination and improved hygiene.
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The Lazarito was shut down. But what remained on Paveglia
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was appalling. Fields of unmarked graves,
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collapsed buildings used to store plague bodies, furnaces
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black with soot fat in a heavy, choking atmosphere.
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Described in 19th century journals as oppressive and vile.
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This is an excerpt from a traveler's diary from around the
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year 1822. We passed an island shrouded in
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black vegetation and eerie silence.
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My guide called it the Land of the Damned.
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You would not speak its name. The air around it seemed to
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change, became denser, heavier, as if even the seagulls avoided
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its shore. How many people really perished
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on Pavaglia? Estimates vary wildly, but
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conservative historians put the number between 80,000 and
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100,000 plague victims over the centuries.
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Some Venetian records suggest it may be closer to 160,000,
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especially if one includes those dumped in plague years prior to
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official tracking. If accurate, that would make
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Paveglia one of the largest mass burial sites in all of Europe,
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and local lore seems to support this as well.
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Fishermen near the island have warned that those fishing should
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never cast Nets near Paveglia or else the dead will bite.
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Even today, bones turn up in sediment layers and storm
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surges. There are no headstones, no
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names, no prayers carved into marble.
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Only charred fragments, grumbling walls and a legend
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that was just beginning. After centuries of plague
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abandonment, the Vaguelya Island might have faded into quiet
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obscurity, an overgrown footnote in Venetian history.
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But in the late 20th century, the Italian state had very
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different plans and an age obsessed with modernization and
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efficiency. The island would be reborn once
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again, not as a sanctuary, nor as a quarantine station, but as
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a dumping ground for the unwanted, the mentally ill of
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society. And with this rebirth came a
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fresh wave of suffering and whispers of something far worse.
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By the late 1800s and early 1900s, Italy, like much of
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Europe, was grappling with how to manage the growing population
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of the incurably I'll, the insane and the elderly.
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Mental institutions, or asylums, were expanding rapidly across
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the country. In 1922, the government of the
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newly unified Kingdom of Italy authorized the conversion of
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Pavaglia's existing structures into a state-run psychiatric
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hospital. The logic seemed practical at
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the time. The island was already isolated,
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which reduced risk of patient escape or public disturbance.
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The old military and quarantine buildings could be quickly
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repurposed, and the surrounding waters made it easy to patrol
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and control movement. But from the beginning, the
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staff complained of strange things happening.
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Reports sent to health administrators in Venice spoke
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of inexplicable moods, persistent patient
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hallucinations and an oppressive air that weighs upon both nurse
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and doctor. Locals who were already
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superstitious dubbed it the Island of Mad Men.
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The asylum operated quietly for nearly half a century, and
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unlike large urban hospitals, the vagueliest facility was
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small, secretive and disconnected from most of the
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mainland infrastructure. Patients were transported by
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barge from Venice and surrounding areas and
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disembarked on a Moss covered dock where rusted iron gates
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barred entry. Once inside, they joined a
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permanent population of psychiatric patients, people
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diagnosed with things such as schizophrenia, mania or severe
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depression, elderly patients with dementia or Alzheimer's, as
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well as what they would consider criminally insane people.
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The hospital likely peaked at about 150 to 200 patients, cared
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for by a skeletal staff of nuns, nurses and two or three doctors
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at a time. Remnants of this era remain
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today. They're appealing signs that
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still hang above doorways, rusting hospital beds scattered
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throughout overgrown wings, stained restraint straps still
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bolted the old mattress frames and steel cabinets filled with
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ancient ampules, scalpels and handwritten files.
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Most disturbingly, in the basement archives of Venice's
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municipal hospital system, they're missing patient records
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from Pavaglia. Entire ledgers from the 1930s to
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1950s are inexplicably blank. Whether this was due to war,
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damage, fire or something more sinister, the absence of
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documentation has allowed a forest of legend to grow
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unchecked. Of all the tales to emerge from
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Bavaglia, none is more persistent or chilling than the
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legend of the mad doctor. According to local oral history
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and repeated by dozens of paranormal researchers, a lead
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physician in the 1930s became obsessed with curing mental
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illness through radical, untested procedures.
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His name is unknown. Some say he was called Doctor
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Apollo. Others simply called him the Ill
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Doctor. His methods included crude
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lobotomies allegedly performed using hand drills and chisels.
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He would isolate patients in the bell tower, which became a sort
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of punishment chamber, and there would be no use of anesthesia.
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The screaming patients were instead restrained.
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Several former staff interviewed in the 1970s by paranormal
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journalist Andrea Lenari described the upper floors of
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the hospital as a Chamber of echoes, one that was filled with
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cries that went unanswered for days.
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One surviving note from a nun reads, I no longer enter the
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upper wing. The doctor conducts his work
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alone. He says he is visited by voices
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that guide his hands and the patients do not return.
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The bell tower, already infamous for its centuries old watch over
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plague fires, became central to the legend.
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It is said that the doctor took patients to the top and
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performed purification rituals under the moonlight, procedures
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meant to banish their madness. Some claim that there was no
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medical treatment at all, but a form of occult experimentation.
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In recent years, the theory has emerged among demonology
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researchers that the doctor may have been attempting to contact
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something on the island, either the souls of plague victims or
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something far darker. Eventually, the legend claims
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that the doctor himself began to lose his mind.
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Patients and nurses alike reported seeing him speaking to
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empty rooms, riding symbols on the walls with chalk and ash,
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and he would later disappear for days, then re emerge covered in
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soot and blood and muttering and Latin phrases that no one seemed
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to recognize. Then one night, he ascended the
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bell tower for the last time. What happened next is at the
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core of Pavaglias ghost lore. Some say he leapt to his death,
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overwhelmed by guilt and madness.
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Others say he was pushed by one of his surviving patients,
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perhaps one driven by revenge. And still others insist that it
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was a shadowy figure that led to his demise, something that
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wasn't human at all, one that appeared behind him and hurled
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him over the edge. One nurse reportedly witnessed
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the event and claimed that he survived the fall but lay broken
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and moaning at the base of the tower.
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A black mist rose from the earth, witnessed by two
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orderlies, and choked the life out of him where he laid.
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His body was never buried, according to the lore.
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Some say that it was thrown into the furnace beneath the
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hospital. Others claim that his remains
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were sealed in the bell tower itself.
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Today, the tower stands empty but intact.
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Its stairs are rotting and its windows are shattered.
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Yet visitors and illegal trespassers have sworn that they
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have heard screaming from its top chamber, even though the
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structure is inaccessible. Locals say that on some nights
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the bell tolls, even though it was removed in 18 O 6 by 1946.
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after World War 2, the psychiatric hospital's role
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began to shift. It was increasingly used as a
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geriatric care facility, housing elderly Venetians with dementia,
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strokes and long term conditions, but the reputation
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of the island never recovered. Patients frequently reported
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seeing shadows, hearing voices, and experiencing violent
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nightmares. Some claim that they were even
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attacked by unseen forces during the night.
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Staff reported feeling dread even on calm days, and several
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doctors transferred away after only months of service, citing
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emotional instability and a constant dread.
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Finally, in 1968, the hospital was abruptly closed.
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No official reason was given, and all of the patients that
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still remained there were transferred elsewhere.
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The generators were shut off and the boats stopped coming.
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The Vaglia was left once again to rot.
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Even after its closure, the stories persisted.
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A local fisherman in the 70s claimed that he heard a woman
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crying on the beach, but only found a child sized footprint in
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the sand. Paranormal investigations in the
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early 2000s captured Evps, or electronic voice phenomena in
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Italian, saying phrases like let them burn.
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And I'm not alone. Multiple visitors, including
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journalists and urban explorers, claimed to be overcome with
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violent nausea, headaches, or fits of aggression, as though
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something malevolent was influencing their minds.
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The psychiatric hospital and the legend of the mad doctor are now
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woven permanently into the Vaguelia's identity.
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Some say the doctor still walks on the island, tormented by what
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he did, and others claim that the real horror is what he
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awakened, an entity, perhaps a demonic 1, that now inhabits the
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bell tower itself. After the closure of Pavaglia's
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hospital in 1968, the island was once again left to decay.
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But unlike its earlier periods of silence, this abandonment was
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not peaceful. As nature crept over the cracked
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flagstones and vines strangled the broken windows, a new
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chapter began, one not dictated by government orders or epidemic
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policy, but by legend, fear, and fascination.
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Pivaglia was no longer just an island.
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It had become a myth, a warning, a dare whispered at bonfires and
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repeated by thrill seekers across continents.
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If you want to go see Hell on Earth, go to Pivaglia Island.
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Following the last evacuation in 1968, the island's docks, wards
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and bell tower were sealed off but not guarded.
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Italian authorities had no intention of redeveloping it,
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nor did they dismantle any infrastructure.
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It was simply left to rot. Local residents across the
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lagoon began to share second hand accounts, strange lights,
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guttural voices drifting across the water, and the phantom
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tolling of the bell tower. By the early 1970s, Venetian
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fishermen stopped dropping their Nets nearby.
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They would say don't fish there, the dead are too many and they
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don't like to be disturbed. And they weren't alone.
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The taboo grew stronger with each generation, and Pavaglia
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became a place to avoid, not out of superstition alone, but
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because of its heavy atmosphere. A few brave teenagers would dare
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each other to row across at night, and many returned pale
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and shaken. Others refused to speak about
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what they saw. From the 1980s onward,
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Pavaglia's haunted reputation grew internationally, filled by
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reports and testimonies from those who had trespassed onto
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the island. Shadow figures seen in the
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hospital windows or walking the bell towers balcony.
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Voices and Venetian dialect heard calling out to non
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existing companions. Apparitions and plague Dr. Robes
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complete with the infamous beaked mask.
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A small girl seen running along the shore, vanishing before the
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observer's eyes and burning smells with no fire or smoke
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present. The sound of gurneys rolling
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across tile floors, echoing through buildings long stripped
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of furniture, and nearly every account visitors describe a
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sudden sense of dread or sickness, sometimes accompanied
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by nausea, panic attacks or nosebleeds.
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Multiple accounts claim that people fainted upon entering the
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central courtyard or the Bell Towers threshold.
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A notable story from 1999 came from a mystery based
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construction team that was assigned to assess the island
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for potential redevelopment. 3 workers entered the asylum and
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left within one hour. 1 later told a local reporter.
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It was like the walls were breathing.
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We heard whispers loud enough to be people but we were alone.
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I felt watched like pray I'll never go back.
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The island's legend exploded internationally after the
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American paranormal television show Ghost Adventures featured
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Pavaglia in a 2009 episode. Zach Beggins, host of the
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series, claimed that the island had the most concentrated
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paranormal activity that he had ever encountered.
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The crew received special permission from the Italian
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government to spend the night alone on the island, a privilege
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granted to almost no one before or since.
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Their investigation included captured Evps in Italian and
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Latin, a moment of alleged possession where Zach shouted
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incoherently and seemed to be overtaken by rage, unexplained
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loud bangs and voices along with object movements, and a chair
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that was thrown across the room by an invisible force.
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The crew fled the island in panic by morning, and the
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episode became one of their most viewed and controversial to
31:27
date. From then on, the Vaguelia was
31:29
considered by many to be the most haunted island in the
31:34
world. In 2014 the Italian government,
31:38
strapped for cash amid economic crisis, began exploring ways to
31:43
generate income from unused state property.
31:46
Pavaglia, long abandoned and costing maintenance fees, was
31:51
listed for lease auction. The plan was to offer a 99 year
31:56
lease to a private developer on the condition that they
32:00
redeveloped the island in a way that preserved historical
32:04
structures. The starting bid was around
32:07
€500,000, or roughly 704 thousand U.S. dollars.
32:13
A Venetian entrepreneur, Luigi Brugnaro, submitted the highest
32:18
bid and won the rights. He proposed building a luxury
32:22
hotel or Wellness retreat, complete with spa and private
32:26
docks. But outrage quickly followed.
32:30
A local movement known as Pavaglia for Everyone rose in
32:34
protest, raising funds and public support to stop the
32:39
privatization of the island. They demanded paveglia be
32:42
preserved as a historical and cultural site, not a playground
32:48
for the elites. Their campaign gained traction,
32:52
and as a result, the government canceled the lease.
32:56
Ironically, Brugnaro would go on to become mayor of Venice, but
33:00
officially renounced any claims to Paveglia, perhaps recognizing
33:04
its controversial nature. And to this day, no private or
33:09
public development has been approved.
33:12
Today, Paveglia is closed to the public.
33:15
It is illegal to set foot on the island without express
33:18
government permission. The buildings are collapsing,
33:22
riddled with rot, roots and wildlife.
33:26
Trees grow out of staircases and Ivy chokes the windows.
33:31
Still, that doesn't stop trespassers.
33:35
Urban explorers from Italy, Germany and America have
33:39
illegally boated in under the cover of darkness.
33:43
Some leave shaken and silent, and others post blurry videos of
33:49
shadowy figures, EMF readings and disembodied cries on the
33:54
Internet. Here's what's been documented in
33:57
recent years. Bones found near the old furnace
34:00
exposed by storms, apparitions allegedly captured an infrared
34:05
and night vision. Cameras in the bell tower,
34:08
multiple audio anomalies, especially near the plague pits
34:12
and psychiatric wards. EMF surges in rooms with no
34:16
wiring and visitors possessed or overcome with violence and
34:22
confusion, particularly near the old surgical theater.
34:27
The locals still warned that there are things that live
34:30
there, and they're not people, not anymore.
34:34
Parapsychologists and demonologists studying the site
34:38
offer several hypotheses as to what could be happening there.
34:42
Residual hauntings, centuries of death imprinted psychic energy
34:47
that's made its way into the soil, Intelligence, spirits,
34:51
some souls that have remained trapped and are aware, and
34:55
vengeful. Demonic activity, the belief
34:58
that something non human was awakened, possibly during the
35:02
Doctor's experiments, and the thin veil theory that the sheer
35:07
scale of suffering caused a permanent tear between this
35:11
world and the next. As one prominent Italian
35:14
exorcist put it in 2006, if there was a place that invites
35:19
the devil, it is Pivaglia. Archaeologists have confirmed
35:23
that plague layers containing charred bones extend beneath
35:27
nearly every major structure. The island's soil is not normal.
35:32
It's composed of centuries of ash, lime and human bone.
35:38
There is no official mass grave marker, no memorial, and no
35:42
protective oversight. Pyvaglia is, in essence, an open
35:46
grave. With every storm, the past rises
35:50
closer to the surface, and perhaps so do the dead.
35:55
There are places in the world where horror clings like fog,
35:59
and Pavaglia is among said places.
36:04
What separates Pavaglia is that its pain spans centuries.
36:09
The first plague victims thrown into mass graves, to the
36:13
condemned souls in a mad doctor's asylum, to the
36:17
voiceless thousands burned without burial, for the modern
36:22
generations to afraid even say its name.
36:26
It's not merely haunted, it's tainted, saturated, and possibly
36:32
even cursed. Some believe that it is an open
36:35
gate, a tear in the veil between worlds.
36:40
Others believe it is simply the cost of forgetting.
36:44
When a place becomes a garbage dump for the sick and insane,
36:48
history will not be kind in return.
36:52
Whatever the truth is, however, the Vaglia continues to endure.
36:57
To some, it is the most haunted place on earth, and to others,
37:03
just another place. You may not believe in curses.
37:07
You may not believe in demons. As I mentioned in the beginning,
37:12
after Pavaglia, you just might believe in something.
37:20
Thank you guys so very much for watching this latest episode.
37:23
At the advice of a very good friend with a much larger
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books, you can visit my official store at
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38:09
And I'll see you very soon with another new episode.
38:12
In the meantime, check out another video of mine that's
38:15
going to be popping up here by the end of this episode.
38:18
And I've also linked a playlist containing all of my episodes.
38:22
So you can kind of maybe see what you have seen and what you
38:25
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