The Island of Poveglia, a short boat ride from Venice, Italy, is for sale despite the wide-spread rumors that the state-owned property is haunted. The Italian government is auctioning the island to offset the country’s debts and started bidding last month at $490,000. The auction ends today amidst high hopes that it will be turned from an abandoned island into a luxurious, money-making hotel property. Sounds great, right? Sure, if you want to build a hotel on an island supposedly made out of the ashes of burned corpses.
In the 16th century, the island was utilized to isolate those with the bubonic plague to prevent the spread of the disease. As result, thousands of corpses were burned and buried on the island. Following the quarantine, the hospital that was used to treat plague victims was turned into an insane asylum. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: The doctor at the asylum allegedly performed bizarre lobotomies and other experiments on patients’ brains. Neat. No worries, though, as he later jumped (OR WAS HE PUSHED) to his death from a bell tower, right into a big pile of comfy human remains.
The island was a destination for the Travel Channel show Ghost Adventures, where the crew stayed on Proveglia for 24 hours. During the course of filming, they experienced disembodied voices and footsteps, strange sounds, and floating orbs.
Poveglia Island. Quarantined plague since Rome…asylum later, mass of island mostly made from ashes of dead ppl. pic.twitter.com/NwORHKNYf4
— Psychiatry Pictures (@psychiatrypics) March 16, 2014
I love white fluffy bathrobes and room service as much as your average American tourist, but the lure of a luxury hotel is not enough to tempt me within a billion miles of this island. Good luck, bankrupt Italian government, but I don’t think anyone is interested in gettin’ their tan on while lounging on layers of (probably pissed) undead bubonic-ed bods.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
