Poveglia is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, between Venice and the Lido, about seven hectares in size. It is closed to the public. Boats that approach are turned away by the Italian Coast Guard, and trespassing is illegal. And yet Poveglia is one of the most famous “haunted” places in the world — an island that, according to legend, holds the bones of a hundred thousand plague victims and the ghosts of a psychiatric hospital.
The real history of Poveglia is well documented, and it is dark enough without exaggeration. But the numbers in the popular story are wrong, and the most famous ghost stories are unconfirmed. Poveglia is a case where the truth and the legend need to be separated carefully.
An island of plague and quarantine
Poveglia first appears in the historical record in the year 421. It was populated for centuries, until its residents fled during the War of Chioggia, in 1378–1381, when the island was caught between Venice and Genoa.
From the late eighteenth century, Poveglia became a place of quarantine. The Magistrate for Health, Venice’s public-health authority, managed the island from 1772, and from 1776 it served as a lazaretto — a quarantine station for incoming ships and cargo. Quarantine use continued from 1793 until after the Second World War. Ships arriving in Venice with suspected disease were held at Poveglia, and their crews and cargo were isolated there.
In 1922, the island’s role changed again. It was converted into a nursing home and long-term care facility, which also functioned as a psychiatric hospital. The hospital closed in 1968. Its bell tower, which dates to the twelfth century, still stands over the abandoned buildings.
The numbers that are not true
The most famous claim about Poveglia is its death toll. Popular accounts — repeated in books, television programmes, and on the internet — say that 100,000 to 160,000 people died of plague on the island, and that their bodies were buried in plague pits.
That figure is wrong. It appears to originate with the American television show Ghost Adventures, which featured Poveglia in 2009, and it has been repeated uncritically ever since. The historian Alberto Toso Fei told the New York Times that the number who died of plague on the island was closer to 20 — and that surviving cemetery records register about 20 plague deaths.
That is still a grim history. But it is not a mass grave of a hundred thousand people. The difference matters, because it shows how a ghost story can invent its own evidence. Poveglia’s reputation as the most haunted island in the world rests, in large part, on a number that was made up for television.
The asylum and the doctor
The hospital years produced their own legends. The most famous is the story of the asylum doctor who, according to the tale, performed cruel experiments on his patients, went mad, and threw himself — or was thrown — from the bell tower. The story is repeated in almost every account of Poveglia.
There is no documentary evidence for it. No record confirms that a doctor died in the bell tower, or that experiments of the kind described took place. The story is an unconfirmed legend, and it should be treated as one.
The reported phenomena are similarly unverified: screams in the night, the tolling of the bell, figures in white coats moving through the abandoned wards. Poveglia is closed to the public, and the accounts of these phenomena come from trespassers, television crews, and second-hand reports. None has been independently verified.
A future as a park
In 2025, the northern part of the island was granted as a concession to “Poveglia per tutti” — “Poveglia for everyone” — a civic group that plans to develop it as a public park. It is a hopeful turn for an island that has spent centuries as a place of isolation: first a quarantine station, then a hospital, then a forbidden ruin.
If the plan succeeds, visitors will finally be able to walk on Poveglia legally, and to see for themselves what is there: not a haunted island full of plague pits, but a small, quiet place with a long and difficult history — and a bell tower that has stood for nine hundred years.
What Is Documented — and What Is Not
Documented: Poveglia is a ~7-hectare island in the Venetian Lagoon, first recorded in 421, depopulated during the War of Chioggia (1378–1381). It served as a lazaretto (quarantine station) from 1776, managed by the Magistrate for Health from 1772, with quarantine use from 1793 until after WWII. In 1922 it became a nursing home/long-term care facility (psychiatric hospital), which closed in 1968. Its bell tower dates to the 12th century. The island is closed to the public and trespassing is illegal. The popular claim of 100,000–160,000 plague deaths is not supported by records; historian Alberto Toso Fei told the New York Times the plague death toll was closer to 20, with surviving cemetery records registering about 20. In 2025 the northern part was conceded to “Poveglia per tutti” for development as a public park.
Unverified: The reported paranormal phenomena (screams, bell tolls, figures in white coats) and the legend of the asylum doctor who died in the bell tower — no documentary evidence supports either. The 100,000–160,000 death toll is a figure attributed to the TV show Ghost Adventures (2009), not to historical records.