Venice is known worldwide for its marvelous canals, unique architecture and stunning holidays. Millions of tourists flock to this amazing place every year to see this beauty with their own eyes. Loving couples rush to Venice as one of the most romantic cities in the world. 122 islands on which the city is built are interconnected by bridges of unique design and canals. You can get to anywhere in the city by boat. But there is one island where tourists are not taken. Yes, and the locals are carefully avoiding him. Few people know that one of the islands on which the city is built is cursed, and the path there is closed for ordinary tourists. There are few brave souls who risked visiting a mysterious island, but none of them bragged after visiting there, on the contrary, they all unanimously say that there is no more terrible place in the whole world. Belongs to the island of Povela Venice, which tourists do not know.
Island like an island
The history of the island of Powell, according to the chronicles, began in 421. Then a small island became a refuge for the Padua, fleeing hordes of barbarians. Over the centuries, the island has successfully settled in and developed. There was built a church and a bell tower. But in 1379, after the Genoese attack, residents had to move to other islands. Since then, no one has lived permanently on the island. But, being a strategically important object protecting the entrance to the lagoon, it was not uninhabited. In 1645 a defensive structure in the form of an octagon was built there. The ruins of all these buildings can still be found on the island.
Death island
The island began to gain notoriety even during the dawn of the Roman Empire. In those days, a plague raged, and the Romans did not come up with anything better than to send all the sick to a remote island. There, the unfortunate were doomed to painful death without treatment. After that, there were attempts to populate the island again, but there were no more people wishing to move to it.
Centuries later, when the bubonic plague hit Europe , coughing up more than half of the population, the Venetians again remembered the island of Povelia, and began to take fetid corpses to the island that there was nowhere to bury. All people with the slightest signs of the disease were also deported, and at the peak of the disease, they were also affected by family members of the sick. But if under the Romans people were left to simply die without treatment, then in the Middle Ages heaps of bodies were unloaded into pits and burned. Even living people could easily end up in this hellish fire. Until now, the soil on the island is almost half composed of human ash, and bones can still be found in different parts of the island. The island of Povelia became a mass grave for almost 160 thousand people who were burned during the raging bubonic plague. Perhaps such drastic measures have borne fruit. According to statistics, Europe lost 2/3 of its inhabitants, and in Venice no more than a third of the population died from the plague.
XX century
From the time of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century, the island of Povelia was practically uninhabited. Even local fishermen tried to get around this dead place. The authorities tried to arrange on the island of Povelia either a checkpoint for ships entering the port, or an infirmary for sailors, when outbreaks of contagious diseases occurred on sailing ships. But all these measures were temporary, and the island’s notoriety was only growing.
When Mussolini came to power in Italy, he ordered in 1922 to set up a closed psychiatric clinic there. Along with mentally retarded people, people were brought there that were objectionable to the dictator's regime. At first, patients complained that they heard groans and screams, and also saw ghosts, but who would believe the madman? But soon the clinic staff began to notice inexplicable things happening on the island.
Ominous Chief Physician
Among other things, the head doctor of the psychiatric hospital was an evil genius. He set up monstrous cruelty experiments on living people. In those days, it was believed that with the help of lobotomy (removal of certain areas of the brain), mental illness can be treated. The doctor was actively trying to find a way to cure his patients, or become famous as the star of science. He only did this without anesthesia, and instead of the surgeon's tools he used a hand drill, a hammer, a saw ... Poor patients died in inhuman torment.
It is not known how long this would continue, but the doctor one day jumped from the belfry. Did the doctor himself lose his mind and commit suicide, or did the patients exhausted by him help him, or maybe ghosts interfered in the matter? History does not know this. The doctor’s body was not buried, as expected, but walled up in the brick wall of the bell tower. The hospital lasted almost until the end of the 60s, but then it was still closed.
Uninhabited island
Since then, the island of Povelia has been uninhabited. There are no residential buildings, fields are not cultivated there, animals and birds do not live there. And even insects fly around this place.
From the buildings on the island, a bell tower has been preserved, from which the bell was removed and taken out in the middle of the century, the ruins of the XII century church and the remains of defensive structures. Povela Island in Italy is patrolled by police boats. What are the authorities afraid of, because no one lives on the island?
Bad reputation
The island of Povella is located very close to the island of Lido, only 200 m from it, from the inside. Even without optical instruments, you can clearly see the bell tower spire and other details. But, despite the huge number of tourist offers, not a single official tour operator will offer their customers a walk to the island of Povelia. Excursions are prohibited there. Even among private traders there is a rare daredevil who agrees to take tourists to the area. And if he agrees, then he will break the frantic price.
Local residents generally try to avoid this topic and, in case of any questioning, carefully leave the topic about the island of Povelia, how to get there, what is connected with it.
Daredevils who visited the island
Do not think that only horror stories and legends are enough for people of our century (and, probably, of past centuries) to refuse to visit a mysterious island. But all who were there say with one voice that strange things are really happening there. So, staying on the island does not leave a feeling that they are constantly being watched. For many, such a paranoid state persists for a long time after visiting Povelia. People there hear sounds, groans, heart-rending screams. Many saw there moving shadows and silhouettes of people burning in a fire.
None of the visitors to the island stayed there even a day. So, one family said that they did not believe idle gossip, would build a villa, and would live on the island. They stayed there less than a day and left the island, abandoning this undertaking without giving any reason. Reporters only managed to find out that their child from the island was taken to a hospital with a cut on his face, which doctors had to put in more than 20 stitches.
American expedition
In 2007, a group of American extremals decided to go to an abandoned island in search of adrenaline. When they swam to the island, their phones disconnected by themselves and did not turn on, as if they had crossed a certain energy line. Mooring to the shore, the guys got out of the boat and went inland, taking pictures. But an ominous silence, not broken even by the chirping of insects, pressured them. The strong feeling that someone was watching them did not leave for a second. Suddenly, an inhuman cry broke the silence, the blood froze in the veins of the guys and they rushed headlong to the boat. The motor did not start for a long time, but they still managed to start the engine and set sail from the shore. And suddenly everyone in the boat heard a distinctly ringing bell. But after all, everyone knows that the bell from the bell tower was removed many years ago.
Young people returned home safely. Their phones have earned again, which can not be said about their psyche. Some did not let go of a sense of persecution, while others heard sounds or dripping water, although there were no leaks in the house, but rain outside. And further. The photos that the guys showed after visiting the island also surprised them. One of them clearly shows the silhouette of a young man. This is not a play of light, not a pillar of dust or an optical illusion. And the guys are absolutely sure that no strangers were at the scene. Perhaps the Americans managed to shoot a real ghost?
All who have been there unanimously claim that truly Povelia is an island of ghosts. In addition, each of them after visiting the island of consciousness changed dramatically.
Life goes on?
And yet, despite the trail of myths and legends that accompany the island, the authorities do not abandon attempts to populate this piece of land. In 2014, another attempt was made to sell the island or lease it for long-term lease. The Italians were against such a decision, because even foreigners could acquire the Povel. The auction passed, and the Italian Luigi Brignaro became the new owner of Povelia; he rented the island for 99 years. The new owner announced that he would turn Povela into a tourist paradise. The former psychiatric hospital will be converted into a luxury hotel. And crowds of tourists rush to the once uninhabited islet. But two years have already passed, and work on Povelye never started.
Gloomy islet
Will life return to Command? The Venetians are very doubtful of this. Especially those who have visited this damned island at least once.
Locals claim that the souls of people who died on the island, not laid to rest by religious canons, hover over the island. And the former head doctor of the psychiatric hospital rings the bell in the bell tower. This place is really filled with mysticism, secrets and chilling horror. Such is the island of Powell. The photos taken by visitors to the island convey all the cold and uninhabitedness of this place forgotten by people.
Have fun today
Until today, the island is absolutely not inhabited. The hospital building is boarded up on the windows of the bars. Everything remained there, as was when the hospital was there. Iron beds, washbasins, and other furniture not taken out of the island remain there. Visitors can also see piles of charred bones left over from medieval fires. The island of Povelia in Italy, the photo of which cannot be viewed without a shudder, is also called the "gate to hell" or "cursed land." Surprisingly, in the 21st century, an entire island remained on the territory of densely populated and enlightened Europe, on which not a soul lives. This piece of land is shrouded in a mysterious halo that has been accompanying it for centuries, inspiring primitive fear in people .