An Island and a Saddistic Doctor

If you are like me, and the hopes of visiting a real life haunted house, or haunted town, go to Savannah, Ga or even Charleston, SC. I for one, even if it weren’t abandoned, or forbidden, would not go to Poveglia. It is actually up for auction the last I heard, may have even been sold by now.

Either way, makes for a great story, so grab your coffee, curl up in your favorite chair and enjoy.

Poveglia is a cursed and mysterios island, where strange historical events have shaped its reputation as the darkest place of the Venice Lagoon and labeled this island the most haunted in the world.

Poveglia had been a thriving and populated island, however with the outbreak of the war of Chioggiain 1378-the fourth and last conflict between Genoa and Venice- its inhabitants were moved to the island of Giudecca. From that very moment this island remained deserted for three hundred years.

Since 1645, it was then employed as an outpost to control the transit of ships in the lagoon with aim of protecting Venice. Proveglia’s darkest moments will date back to more recent years, when due to the 1700 Black Death, the island became a lazaretto (an open-air cemetary), where quarantined people-even those with the slightest signs of sickness were sent to die.

I ask you, what if they had done this to us when COVID hit?

But to continue…Bodies were left on the island’s streets to decompose. Then they were burnt and their ashes were thrown in mass graves. It is said that more than 160,000 people died in agony during the bubonic plague. Today, strata of bone can be found beneath the surface, which is made up of 60% of human ashes.

Historical reconstructions were done, and during that time, in that period, the island was also the scene of the execution of criminals, who were usually killed by drowning. But believe me, this isn’t the scariest part of the story, at least not for me.

In 1922, the buildings hosted a home for the elderly. The furniture still present today witnesses that the building was actually an asylum. From the moment a person was diagnosed with a mental illness and taken to Poveglia, there was no possibility of redemption or rehabilitation. (What does that say for you or me? Those we love?) The only aim of the new use of the island was to isolate these people, and separate them from society. It’s important to remember, in the past, any uncommon way of thinking and behavior different from the socio-cultural norms of the time, was considered mental disorders. Anyone could be identified as mentally ill and locked up.

Local legend has it that the patients of Poveglia asylum reported that they saw strange shadows-probably belonging to the ghosts of the plague victims- and that they could not sleep at night because of the wails of the suffering spirits. Of coarse, the doctors did not believe them. Patients were subjected to tortures, sometimes death. It is believed that a sadistic doctor did evil experiments on them, even performed labotomies, as he believed that this cruel practice was a great way to treat and cure mental illness. This procedure was incredibly wicked and painful, as the doctor used hammers, chisels and drills without anesthesia or any concern for sanitation.

Because of the doctor’s practices, he was tormented by the ghosts who drove him crazy to the point where he jumped (or was thrown) from the clock tower that stands out on the lagoon. The legend tells that he did not die from the fall, but that he was chocked before by a mysterious fog. In some silent and calm nights you can still hear the bell tolling across the bay, despite being removed years ago.

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A Ghost of an Idea

When we think of ghosts, chances are we are going to imagine something ethereal and barely visible, a phantom-like creature that can pass through walls and knock books off shelves.

If we were to imagine a tale from an Edgar Allan Poe tale, in the 1800’s a strange phenomenon began to take place. Catelepsy; it’s a physical occurance that modern doctors believe is related to catatonic schizophrenia. This condition causes rigid muscles and gives the victim the appearance of death. In the 19th century, this ailment was not properly diagnosed and, as a result, many people were buried alive. Some managed to find their way out of their earthly tombs, once again giving rise to the belief that the dead can come back, not as wispy spirits, but rather as actual physical beings.

This viewpoint of spirits that come back from the dead, as wisps of smoke, didn’t become conventional until the Victorian Era. Before then, you didn’t have to go looking for the dead, they came looking for you and usually with a vengeance. They also didn’t come back as transparent pranksters, they came back n the flesh.

Now let me tell you the story of Constance Whitney, a woman who died in the 1800’s. She had been presumed dead while in a catatonic state. In an attempt to remove one of her rings while she lay in her casket, a man’s blade slipped and he cut off her finger. Constance sighed, woke up and for lack of a better term, “came back from the dead”, continuing her life above ground forseverall more years.

A similar story was set in Northern Ireland. It tells of grave robbers who dug up the remains of a rich woman, again like the other story, while trying to take one of the woman’s rings. This supposedly dead woman came back to life.

One version of the returning dead, as a physical being, was “revenant.” Stories during the middle ages in Great Britain and Western Europe tell of these creatures who return from the dead, usually for vengeance on friends of family. A written account from the 1190’s, one of William of Newburg’s, he tells of a man who feared his wife had been unfaithful and hides in the rafters to spy one her only to fall to his death accidentally. According to William, this is what happened:

“A Christian burial, indeed, he received, though unworthy of it; but it did not much benefit him; for issuing, by the handiwork of Satan, from his grave at night-time, and pursued by a pack of dogs with horrible barkings, he wandered through the courts and around the houses while all men made fast their doors, and did not dare to go abroad on any errand whaever from the beginning of the night until the sunrise, for fear of meeting and being beaten black and blue by this vagrant monster.”

William of Newburg

If you were to go a few centuries back in time to the country of Romania, you will discover the people had a different way of seeing the dead. They believed there were benevolent and malevolent spirits. The benign spirits of dead ancestors were often welcomed into homes and offered a meal. This was something that couldn’t be done unless the spirit had visited in corporeal form. Over time this evolved into what we now call vampires or zombies.

In much of what we write today, the beliefs and traditions are what aid us in our telling of tales. Much like King Arthur or Merlin has done for centuries. You never know where your next short story or novel may come from, so celebrate all that came before.