A man who stayed overnight with a friend on the ‘world’s creepiest island’ got freaked out by his experiences there.
There are many parts of the world which have an eerier aura than others, and they very often carry the weight of history behind them.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are certain locales where awful things have happened that seem to carry it in the air, whether that be because spirits are real or because of several other factors about the place which stain your perception.
Among the favourites of paranormal investigators is a small island off the coast of Italy called Poveglia, which through history has been home to a significant amount of death and misery.
One of the visitors to this island ended up staying overnight and did not really enjoy his time on Poveglia, sharing what he’d found in a video.
Welcome to Poveglia, gentlemen (Blom UK via Getty Images)
Where is Poveglia island?
It’s located between Venice and Lido, so if you’re in the north eastern part of Italy, you’re around the right area.
Given the fact that it’s an island you’ll need to find a way of crossing the water to reach it and you’ll want not to be too obvious about it since you might be stopped by the authorities.
It’s a rather nice part of the world to be located in provided you can get over the place’s overgrown nature and the reputation it has for being one of the planet’s most haunted areas.
The historic hospital and bell tower, now in a state of disrepair (Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
What makes it the ‘world’s creepiest island’?
In the late 18th Century, the island became a place to put people the Italian mainland didn’t want, with Poveglia first being used as a point of quarantine for plague victims and then in the 20th Century it became a mental hospital.
It has been abandoned ever since the hospital closed down in the 60s, leaving behind a deserted piece of land with derelict buildings and a reputation for being a part of the world where many people died.
According to National Geographic around 100,000 plague victims died on the island, so if you believe in the supernatural then Poveglia must be absolutely teeming with the spirits of the miserable.
Those who died in the hospital or more ancient bones of those who used to call the island home before it was abandoned the first time mean that it’s not a happy place at all.
Throughout the years it’s been a plague hospital and psychiatric ward, a lot of people have died on this little island (Marco Secchi/Getty Images)
Why are people banned from Poveglia island?
Having been abandoned for almost six decades now, the island’s nature has started to consume the buildings of Poveglia, and without regular maintenance the structures are considered unsafe.
Any would-be explorers having a poke around the island risk being seriously injured should the structural integrity of the buildings they’re looking at no longer be up to snuff.
If something happened to you they’d need to send people out by boat or helicopter, and that’s assuming you were even in a condition to raise the alarm that something terrible had happened.
If you really wanted to go then you could ask for special permission but you might need a good reason.
What did the man find?
Irish YouTuber Dara Tah and his mate Matt sailed over to Poveglia, and after ducking behind a wall to make sure they weren’t spotted by police they set about exploring the place.
The duo were sufficiently creeped out by the abandoned island, with crumbling buildings being reclaimed by nature and some of the only signs of previous life being the graffiti which adorned the walls of some of the ruins as a testament to past visitors.
Night soon fell and they cracked out their ghost-detecting tools, though Dara admitted he was sceptical of the idea of coming across supernatural life.
Following a thermal gizmo the duo made their way to the island’s bell tower which is meant to be especially haunted, with Dara saying it was strange that their instruments immediately pointed them in that direction.
They struggled to keep their devices working as they got increasingly creeped out and their flickering lights failed them, and Dara then decided to commune with the spirits he didn’t really believe in.
He and Matt got some recordings of words by tuning a radio and having an Italian friend translating later that the words meant ‘leave/travel’, which he thought could be a sign that the island’s spirits (should you believe in that sort of thing) telling Dara to scarper.
Manu, their Italian translator, also heard the word ‘explosives’ and shortly afterwards got freaked out because he was searched at an airport for the first time to see if he was carrying any explosives.
Coincidence? Or confirmation?
