Venice
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The abandoned island of Pobeglia – the location of the Plague Pit and the Old Asylum – is about to assume a happier new identity.
On August 1, a group of Venetians embark on a project that owns an apparently ghost island from the Italian province under a 99-year lease and transforms it into an urban park that is open only to the residents of Italian cities.
Locals fought tough competition with real estate developers to ensure Poveglia remains a public property.
In 2014, the island, about 7.5 hectares (18.5 acres) in size, the southern island of Venice Ragoon, has been auctioned by Italian provincial real estate agencies and opened to developers who were seduced by peaceful and convenient locations just three miles from St. Mark’s Square.
Several consortiums raised money to buy it, including one linked to current mayor of Venice, Luigi Burgnaro.
Terrified by the prospect of an island being sold to a private buyer, Patrizia Veklani formed a group, Poveglia Per Tutti (Poveglia) to try to save an island on the government’s auction list and an island like it.
The group, which has over 4,500 members, was able to raise 460,000 euros ($539,000) and secured a lease.
“It wasn’t just rage, it was psychologically traumatizing to realize that we could break up the city and sell it to the highest bidders and sell it without a plan without a start price. It’s as if Rome had decided to sell the Trevi Fountain.
Veclani told CNN on Friday that her group viewed this as a small victory in reclaiming longtime problem Venice from Westernism.
An estimated 30 million tourists visit the city every year to warn locals. This has fallen to under 50,000 despite efforts by authorities to limit visitor numbers through measures such as the 2021 cruise ship ban, including the daytripper’s 5 euro ($5.86) bill introduced last year.
“The island would have been less popular than elsewhere,” Veklani said, “But keeping this small space just for the Venetians is a victory.”
Overgrown forests, military fortresses, 15 aged hospital buildings, and everything that remains of the island with rather large colonies of rabbits, the group says.
Pobeglia’s eerie history dates back to the outbreak of a Bo plague in the 18th century, brought to Venice by fleas on merchant ships at the time when the city was the center of international trade.
As the plague spread, the island was converted into maritime quarantine docks for merchant ships and people with symptoms arriving from overseas.
Prior to that, it was home to farmers and fishermen and was established in 421 AD as a Roman military base.
The island’s farm buildings and military barracks were transformed into dormitories, and the sick lived together and received primitive treatments like blood.
As the plague spread, the dead were buried in large graves. Venetian historians estimate that over 160,000 people were buried on the island between the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 19th century, Pobeglia became an exile for the mentally ill and was often detained and subjected to experimental treatment.
The asylum was closed in 1968 and the island has been uninhabited ever since.
Pobeglia’s sad history has led to her belief that it is a ghost.
Modern ghost hunters, including the American television series Ghost Adventure, have visited the island over the years to further spread the myth.
“The island is becoming famous by foreigners looking for something to exploit,” Massimo Pera, the group’s patron, told CNN.
“The memories of the island are soaked in pain, but we turn them into places of joy.”
The renovation of the island without electricity and running water is led by the APSYM Institute of Human Sciences at the University of Verona.
