Aerial view of Poveglia Island in the Venetian Lagoon.

THE world’s most creepy island is littered with hundreds of thousands of abandoned corpses and intrepid travellers are barred from entering.

Poveglia sits just off the coast of Venice and is comprised of three small areas, each as creepy as the last.

Aerial view of Poveglia Island in the Venetian Lagoon.
A scenic view of the abandoned Poveglia island in the Venetian Lagoon in ItalyCredit: Getty
Overgrown, decaying interior of an abandoned building.
A ruined building lies crumbling on the supposedly haunted islandCredit: Getty
Interior of a dilapidated building on Poveglia Island.
An abandoned building on the islandCredit: Alamy

One consists of numerous dilapidated and abandoned buildings, another was previously a military fort, and the third is almost hidden due to being engulfed by lush vegetation.

And it is because of those unstable buildings that tourists are banned from setting foot on the spine-tingling patch of land.

Rare exceptions are made for official reasons, such as research or filming.

The reason for the island’s spooky reputation is what is was used for in centuries past.

In the 18th century, Poveglia was used as a quarantine station during outbreaks of the plague. 

People were dragged kicking and screaming to the island if they showed even the slightest symptoms of the Black Death, according to local tales.

The 18-acre plot was also used as a mass burial ground, where some 160,000 victims are thought to have been burned to stop the spread of the disease.

It has been said that even to this day, human ash from these cremations make up more than 50 per cent of the island’s soil.

British urban explorers Matt Nadin, aged 40, and Andy Thompson, aged 54, documented their visit to parts of the island that have remained undisturbed for decades in 2020.

The pair shared the video on their YouTube channel, Finders Beepers History Seekers, where they frequently explore and document deserted and significant historical sites.

English seaside town to transform abandoned beach shelters into new attraction

Matt said: “It was really, really eerie.

“You could tell even the taxi driver was scared, not just of the police but of the place itself, he couldn’t get away quick enough.

“The island is so full of dark, dark history, a hell of a lot of people died there and you really get a sense of the horrors that took place there while you’re walking around.

“They burnt all the bodies and left them where they lay. The island has never really been cleared properly or anything so everything has just been left.

“Later on, when it was turned into an asylum, and because people were shoved there out of the way of prying eyes, they started to do experiments on them, horrible, horrible stuff.

“Whilst we were there, we heard the bell toll and that was quite spooky, that did actually freak me out a little bit. It was like an omen or something.

“The whole place was just really weird and eerie although you could tell from the tiles and the archways it would have been a beautiful building originally.

“You could see that hardly anyone had set foot there for years because there is no graffiti or anything it’s all just natural decay.

“Nature has really taken over and it was really typical of a horror movie with all the vines and creepers.

“Definitely an experience I won’t forget in a hurry.”

Overgrown brick structure on Poveglia Island in the Venice lagoon.
A Venetian geriatric hospitalCredit: Getty
Ruined staircase in an abandoned building.
A staircase is ruined in the main hall of the abandoned Hospital of PovegliaCredit: Getty
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