The Plague Island of Poveglia
The island of Poveglia is one of the many small islands located in the Venetian Lagoon between Venice and Lido. It is believed to be haunted by the ghosts of thousands of people that allegedly died here when the island served as a quarantine colony for plague victims at the time of Napoleon, and later as an asylum for the mentally ill. The psychiatrist who ran the hospital was a psychopath who butchered and tortured his patients, and later took his own life by throwing himself from the island's bell tower. After the hospital closed, the island lay abandoned for nearly fifty years. Fishermen avoided it for fear of netting human bones. Now a new project hopes to transform this long forgotten and feared island into a dream university campus.
Photo credit: Young Architects
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