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173: The Island of No Return
66 Plays3 months ago
Welcome cryptic cuties, this week we take another dive into our haunted places series, this time with a very old and very creepy island. Poveglia Island, located in the Venice lagoon, dates back to the 5th century and has a troubling past that has earned it the title of the island of no return.
With everything from sickness, quarantines, death and mass graves, to psychiatric hospitals and lobotomies, this place checks all the boxes and is definitely haunted AF. The people who have managed to get to the island, report a lot of paranormal activity and a whole lot of ghosts. Locals steer clear of the island and say that it's cursed, refusing to go near it.
We hope you enjoy, and catch up with us next week for Alanna's segment and more haunted af locations.
Join us over at patreon.com/Castlesandcryptids for tons of bonus eps and minisodes!
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 173
00:00:04
Speaker
Darkcast Network. Indie Pods with the Dark Side.
00:00:29
Speaker
You are listening to Castles and Cryptids where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck. And I'm your host, Alana. And I'm Kelsey. And I'm sure this is episode 173.
January Challenges and Coping Strategies
00:00:45
Speaker
Are you? Are you really sure? Oh my god. No, that's why I should throw it to you to say the next thing. But i've we've naturally never figured that how out how that goes.
00:00:58
Speaker
I want to be like wine and crime or someone where they used to be like, and then you say that thing and then you say your name and then you forget to say your name and then everyone take it away.
00:01:09
Speaker
go no
00:01:12
Speaker
oh I know, I know. I never know how to start these and that'll be a thing. I guess just forever, but welcome back to another episode.
Work Difficulties and Scheduling Issues
00:01:23
Speaker
Another week has gone by and you are,
00:01:26
Speaker
listening to us again or for the first time so we're fucking happy about it we're jazzed right yeah oh we are getting through january so you're gonna make it y'all you got this hear your words of affirmation you can do it you can do it you can do it all month long just for the first month and then you can give up
00:01:57
Speaker
Well, no, at least in February, I feel like we'll be able to at least pace ourselves a little. I keep saying to Kelsey, I'm like, there's five weeks, and then we just do a Patreon. January is kicking my ass. I feel like, ugh. I don't know. I feel like it's not getting better. It was like, ugh. At work, it was supposed to slow down, but now they're like, you don't have the hours, you get no stuff. and then Oh, but these guys weren't being as busy, you said? but like It's busy enough that like yeah we don't have enough people to sustain what we have. ah but then
Childhood Colds and Parenting Reflections
00:02:37
Speaker
Of course. Yeah, normally we get like more merchandise they start because we just finished our inventory, so they start like kind of building up.
00:02:47
Speaker
Uh, more stuff because they don't want to have the store like super packed when you're trying to do inventory to make it harder. So they kind of yeah hold back a little bit. and And then normally it starts to pick back up and it hasn't happened yet. And that's where we get a lot of our hours is like, Oh, they sent us more items and that kind of stuff. So.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, that can help with hours, but everything's kind of still been on the smaller side. So they're like, oh, we over-scheduled for the day. So if anybody calls in sick, we're not covering it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it can be hard. I have a lot of sick days left, so it won't be me. I have some vacation days. I should schedule some long weekends, and that way I'll get some rest, and I won't get, like. Yeah, don't get burned out.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah. As I say, when my like my kid today is all like, a sniffly again. And it's like, Oh, no, you're back in school or she gets a cold, like, you know, usually once or twice a school year,
Social Media Presence and Photography
00:03:56
Speaker
or at least a stuffed up nose for several weeks. So I was through I was from fall to spring constantly runny nose sniffly just I'd be okay for a week and then I'd catch something else and okay but to be fair she said this week they only had to go Tuesday and Thursday and so I said well were you getting enough sleep this week going to bed early I mean not that she can't she'll sleep in in the morning but yeah yeah
00:04:30
Speaker
Turn into my night owl. um Kids. They're cute. What's going on with you over there this week? I've hardly talked to you. Yeah, not much. Just working. Just to plant your little flower. Yeah, you didn't see my... I tagged you on a post on Facebook about it.
00:04:55
Speaker
Oh, Facebook. I literally haven't been on there to see the the the reactions to my my own plant photo.
First Police Encounter: A Personal Story
00:05:06
Speaker
But yes, I was wondering how it was doing because mine's like, yeah, it had stages. It had one flower and then over the course of the next week, now like three more and new flowers have opened and then the first one kind of shriveled up and. but Exactly. Same for the first ones that appeared on ours. Yeah, there's still three like really nice big ones for now. And it's starting to get, I don't know, little leaves or shoots at the bottom. Yeah, shoots, whatever you want to call it, like I can see the them coming up starting to
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's the part I put on my post that I think is giving me the finger because it did look like there was a bunch of little things coming up at the bottom. Looks like little triangles. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. Okay. Yeah. My amaryllis is doing the same thing. I was like, what's happening? Why is some of you dying and being reborn? Yeah, it seems to have a really quick life cycle or whatever. um But yeah, it's so pretty.
00:06:13
Speaker
Follow us on our socials. I am something, Elana Rain Stark on Instagram. Yeah.
00:06:22
Speaker
I think I'm Kelsey212, something like that. Yeah. Sounds right. um Mostly on Instagram. I don't, well, I don't really post on either, but. I know. I should post some more. It's kind of fun. Like I take pictures and stuff and then I'm like, oh, that could be cute. And then I'm just like,
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah. It's not as cute as someone else's. I don't know. I just get like, I'll defeat it sometimes. No. So stupid. Yeah. I'd like to do that. Just take more, take more pictures and post, post more. Pet pictures. People love pet pictures. I mean, I know I but like post a lot of my dog, but.
00:07:03
Speaker
I think I'll continue to do that. Even though my camera sucks. Yeah, not as good as your, was it Huawei? How do you say that? Your Huawei phone. That camera looked like you snapped a picture and it looked like we had already photoshopped it. It's just phenomenal. I am still trying to get the pictures off it. Don't even get me started. I've already tried to transfer them to my laptop and it wasn't working and I'm not very good at the stuff.
00:07:34
Speaker
I had to put it back in the fridge so the battery would cool down again so I could make sure it's charged so I could try again. It's like, ugh. Damn. Story of my life.
00:07:48
Speaker
Anyway, that's a last year problem, right? Right, yeah. We're starting fresh. New year, new problems. Right?
00:08:02
Speaker
Like how I said last year, I go all year without getting any um and photo radars or speeding tickets, and I did, but then on January 2nd, I got pulled
Weekend Plans and Birthday Celebrations
00:08:10
Speaker
over by the cops for the first time. Did I even tell you? No. Yeah, they started speeding and following too close in the morning. Somebody had cut me off, so to be fair, I probably was trying to drop you for a better position and sped up. Yeah.
00:08:29
Speaker
It was weird because I had never had that happen before. because so I've never been pulled over. I would probably immediately cry. Well, because I kind of was like, is this for me? I'm driving along. And then I'm like, oh, wait, there is lights. And then it's like, are they just trying to get by? And then it's like, oh, no, they're like motioning and then stuff. And so then you're like pulling over. And then like one of the other things you said to me was like, yeah, i like it also took a really long time to pull over.
00:08:58
Speaker
I was like, I don't know. I was like, yeah, it's like my first time. I'm just, I'm really sorry about that. I was like, all right. I was not evading. I was not evading you. I'm sorry. Amazon, yeah. The gas. Maybe a Pat's car. No.
00:09:19
Speaker
It was, it was nerve wracking though. And then I had to pull back out onto it. the highway and was like, gosh, my my like, you know, you're trying to look and use your side mirrors and whatnot. But also like my back windows were kind of still icy and stuff. So I don't know. It was i was like, yeah yeah, it can be yeah Yeah, especially trying to get back on the highway with no sort of like merge or anything that would be hard. And and the cops car is behind you, so they're kind of blocking the view a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Because they tend to pull over a little bit past you, like, so that they're kind of like sticking out.
00:10:04
Speaker
their vehicle and yours will be like more on the shoulder it seems. So yeah, they'd be kind of blocking any field of vision. It was tough. yeah dan I was like, I was like, that's fair. You know, he's like, I could have like given you both speeding and following too closely. And then that could have been demerits. And I was like, oh, and he's like, but I gave you a break. And I'm like, thanks. I appreciate it. Damn.
00:10:32
Speaker
while they're like yeah you know following too closely and shit like that on roads high speed roads like you're definitely not safe and i'm like no that's fair i get it i get a little crazy when i'm going late yeah so Lesson learned. Yeah, I don't like driving on the highway. um I typically don't really ever have to be on there during peak times, thankfully, ah because I'm stressed enough ah driving during non-peak times just because I'm not really used to it. so Yeah, that's why I used to drive through the city. Yeah. but ah We live, we learn. Right.
00:11:15
Speaker
oh my god anyway that's all that's all I got really new oh yeah just uh once we get this through this terrible week which by the time this airs yay it's Friday hello um Pat said he's uh got us some brunch with our friends uh Kelly And i her girlfriend. Yes. And I'm like, okay, we haven't seen them in a while. And also fun. I like brunch and friends and food. And then I think we have D and&D. So yeah, I think it should be a good weekend. Nice. And then my birthday is next Saturday year the saturday after. I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. So it's like, damn, January social calendar filling up. I know, right? Yeah. Oh,
00:12:03
Speaker
And also, yes, this is our January, this is our Kelsey's birthday week episode. This one goes out to our Capricorns, and to Kelsey, of course, the most magical co-host of them all. ah Yeah, a little bit before, because this comes out on the 17th. Yeah, and you're the 19th, I believe. Yes.
00:12:32
Speaker
Um, uh, happy birthday to all of our January listeners. And every time, if you guys ever want a ah birthday shout out, I love it when I hear podcasts doing that for people. Oh, yeah. That's so cute. Yeah. People will be like, shout out my friend or my, that got me into the show. And I'm like, Oh, Oh, that's cool. Who show us who your gateway gal is. Got you into it.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah. Your supplier.
00:13:06
Speaker
Castle's Encrypted's dealer. Oh. Yeah. Well, we're trying to get out there. So yeah, tell your friends that's your PSA for the day. Right? Yeah. Then we'll get right into it because damn, folks, we'd be cutting it close. We got to get you some content out. I know. We're literally recording this.
00:13:30
Speaker
and What, a day and a half
Poveglia Island: Haunted History Begins
00:13:32
Speaker
before it would post? Not even a day and a half? but ah Yeah, it's not very in advance for us. It's like 30 hours before it'll post. It's okay, I'm off tomorrow. ah It was my schedule that messed us up. this I saw a cute like... um Post from uh, it was alicia from twisted uncorked. Uh, they do the podcast uh with one host from canada one from uh america and similar content asin to the wine pairings and stuff hence the the name and it was like point of view getting ready to record after and Record and edit after like nine hours at your day job and she's like getting in her arms like doing the stretches
00:14:19
Speaker
and the crack in your neck. And I'm like, oh shit, wait, you're going to try and record and edit in the day too. I'm like, girl. Yeah. I value my sleep too much. Yeah. Organize your time is what we're saying. If you ever get into this.
00:14:45
Speaker
Better than we do. No. I mean, we were doing good until I started working full time. Then it got a little challenging, but then it's like and promotion and everything's been harder because I'm working like another almost eight hours a week. So that was like all the time I was normally working on stuff. So I can just, yeah.
00:15:14
Speaker
couple couple hours here and there or like a little bit of seasonal depression or I don't want to work on notes and all of a sudden I'm like yeah wow I'm behind yeah right you're like I just want a week off damn it but to have like one week off you need to take like three weeks off I know I'm impressed when people really really pre-record but anyway um What have you got for us today? I have a a fun, creepy little island and I came across at some point when we were looking up abandoned places and I was like, ooh, gotta keep this on the list and revisit it because
00:15:57
Speaker
It had pretty interesting history when I first read about it. I was like, oh, I can't forget this one. No, I've seen that a Haunted Island or two that has graced a few lists because you're like, it's too good not to make a listicle, right? Yeah. That's cool. And then like, they're not always so mine, I had like a few different ones because I was like, they're not always enough to make a whole.
00:16:27
Speaker
um episode about for me so this one's got a pretty long history so o i do like a lot in history i just did a little shimmy you did yeah oh my god not like the chicken blended oh shimmy shimmy jimmy jimmy and
00:16:49
Speaker
It's been blended. She's like the airhead blonde chick that's dating one of the other couples they sit at the resort with and she's just always shooting. I don't think I've ever seen blended. That has Jennifer Aniston and... No. i it's the drew but It's Drew Barrymore. It's the second one Drew Barrymore does with Adam Sandler. You might be thinking of just go with it. Oh, probably. Okay.
00:17:16
Speaker
blended they go to africa it's very good they're blended they're
Early History and Quarantine Role of Poveglia
00:17:20
Speaker
blended yeah i don't think i've seen that one we'll have to show it oh we love watching that at our house it's a very good movie yeah yeah i do love true barry more so right is they have good chemistry she and adam samler nice wedding singer 2.0 But they they did. Anyway, I heard them talking about when the trailer came out on the How Did This Get Made podcast. They were very confused about how the movie was going to go. I was like, just wait. When you see it, you'll get the premise. It all makes sense.
00:17:58
Speaker
Sorry. ah So this is the story and history of Poveglia Island in ah just near Venice in Italy.
00:18:11
Speaker
Oh, yes, queen. She's a very haunted biatch. Yeah. Oh, sweet. Okay. I wasn't sure which one you were doing, so I'm excited. Yeah. ah So Poveglia is located about 10 kilometers south of Venice, and it's famous for its sinister past and all these reported hauntings. It's pretty creepy.
00:18:40
Speaker
Dang. Imagine just being the haunted island. Right? It was like, like the creepy doll island in Mexico. I think that's the other one that I was thinking you might be covering. Yeah.
00:18:56
Speaker
Oh, I already covered that one. That one you did. Okay, because it yeah episode two this before. Oh, well. Yeah. 150 years ago. Right. Podcasting years were 2000.
00:19:14
Speaker
right ah The island was originally called Popelia or Deep Poppy. meaning poplars in Italian, probably due to the vegetation and I see like poplar trees that grow there. It looks pretty like forested when you look up pictures of it now, it's very like dense trees. Yeah, it's kind of made up of three islands, two of them are natural, and they kind of built like
00:19:48
Speaker
want to call like retaining walls but kind of like borders to them and then a little like bridge that would connect the two and then the the third island was like man-made uh that was built later that's interesting i'm thinking of the causeway like i'm picturing when you say that they built connections like they built a kind of a causeway from oak island to the mainland so they could drive the big machines out and not have to take them out on like a ferry or whatever and it's it's interesting how they can just like build a roadway like that this it looks like from aerial pictures it's pretty close together like the two islands so yeah okay yeah didn't they just like build manhattan onto some sort of quagmire they're doing all sorts of stuff right
00:20:45
Speaker
It was first recorded in history in 421, which I think is the earliest year I've ever had to say on the podcast. I was like, holy shit.
00:21:00
Speaker
Just 421. Yeah, when the inhabitants near a at nearby um on other islands ah went there to flee the barbarian invaders that were coming in to Italy, ah which I guess included Attila the Hun, which I know the name. I don't know a lot about him, but I feel like maybe I need to look up some more about him. All I know is he liked magic and stuff, but that's from Night at the Museum.
00:21:32
Speaker
so Okay. yeah I got nothing. Jab of the hut.
00:21:44
Speaker
And people ended up settling on the island. They built up a small community. They started growing gardens and then fishing and even extracting salt. That I guess is like pretty abundant there. Okay. Yeah. Salt mining. Yeah.
00:22:03
Speaker
By the late 9th century, it was home to about 200 families that have migrated over from Venice. and Wow. Yeah, I was looking at the island after and I can't believe how many like families and houses they said were on it at one point because it does not look big enough for that many houses, but I guess if they were really, really little.
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, poor Europe. It's pretty crowded. Yeah, not by today's standards. What we're used to here in like North America for the size of our homes. Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
there was ah Most of the people living on the island were servants of Doge, Petro, Tridentica, and the Doge is like an an elected head of the Republic of Venice.
00:22:59
Speaker
and i do love the the title doge and yeah i did know someone who had named their cat doge but he wasn't looking at derby as the doge the dogecoin dog now i can't now i can't even say the word doge yeah like the he kind of looks like a nikita yes i don't think i've ever seen it ah cryptoco Okay, anyway, moving on. ahm Sorry. um Yeah, that Petro guy, he was assassinated in 864. After he was assassinated, I guess the servants that lived on the island barricaded themselves in the guy's palace before they ended up being granted their freedom to be able to live on the island of Poveglia.
00:23:52
Speaker
um Yeah, and they got some other rights, including like some tax exemption stuff ah that ah other people that lived in Venice or like the Venice Lagoon Islands ah had to do, but they didn't have to do. They had some perks. Weird, rebellious guys. Right? Less than 100 years later, the community had grown to more than 800 homes.
00:24:24
Speaker
And the island was rich in these vineyards and the salt marshes and it prospered for the next few hundred years. How long? Like almost 400 years.
00:24:40
Speaker
okay we're gonna have a good run yeah or no almost 500 years yeah about 500 years damn uh because this is 1379 when the kioja war happened and this caused the population to decrease considerably um and though those on the island were tax exempt at the time the city of venice was attacked and the population of Poveglia Island was moved to the Judecca, a main island in the Venice lagoon.
Plague Victims and Haunting Tales
00:25:18
Speaker
So they were kind of relocated.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah. Those lagoons. I don't know, man. Yeah, like I really want to go to Venice. It looks so beautiful. And they're saying it's like sinking. So it might be gone soon. I was like, oh, if it actually like disappears.
00:25:41
Speaker
so many years of history yeah it's crazy yeah right lots of places like also had um not exactly gondola years i don't think they'd have called them that everywhere but saw the words ferryman or wary man like in london and places before they had all the bridges and there's just a lot more boats and stuff that went around it used to be quite the profession i guess but camera yeah kind of cool
00:26:08
Speaker
ah So getting into the uses for the island after that, once the people that were primarily living there moved away, ah there is I guess multiple sources or rumors kind of going around saying that the island was used during the Great Black Plague.
00:26:25
Speaker
um so like that one yeah from 1347 to 1352 um but i guess these are falls like they're not cooperate corroborated um but it was started using around the 16th century um as like a quarantine island or a lazaretto ah So ships, if they were on their way to Venice, if they thought that they might have people or they knew that they had people that were sick, they would make them stop at the Poveglia Island. And then they would like quarantine there for up to 40 days um to see if like people got better or if they were really sick and died. And then if like it passed at that quarantine period, then it could carry on to Venice where
00:27:23
Speaker
more of the population lived and people wouldn't get as sick. Just so crazy. I would never understand, other than by trial and error, how they would figure that out before they understood germ theory. and they just Yeah, because this is the 1500s. Yeah, I mean, they kind of were like, oh, things are carried on the air. So they'd like maybe like you know close your window and don't go outside. But like they didn't understand that it's I don't know. they They didn't understand a lot. yeah So that's crazy that they could figure out like, well, things, any goods or people that we seem to take. And as long as we make it wait like over a month, then fine. Yeah, it's crazy that they just like came to that system.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, really cool. I don't know if they use like if the houses may were maybe still there um or what, but it's that they use the island to accommodate travelers who may have been carrying diseases or plague for that quarantine period to prevent the spread. And then some people with severe illnesses ah that lived in bigger cities or islands were said to have said been sent to the island um to quarantine after being separated from their families.
00:28:42
Speaker
and yeah as a result there were a whole lot of deaths on the island it's crazy yeah right because they would send people there to die basically yeah yeah i do remember hearing about that in different history books which is very very sad but like right yeah what else were they supposed to do like yeah well they pop what like leprosy colonies and that kind of stuff that happened in the past and yeah well and that's basically one of the ways like we still use the quarantine today we used it all through covid yeah yeah effective yeah we could argue anyway oh don't mark us for talking about the shorona virus i think it helped at the beginning but at this point
00:29:33
Speaker
I was kind of saying it from day one, like you're in you're not going to get it to go away. It's going to be like the cold or the flu. It's going to kill a certain amount of people. yeah It's here to stay for the rest of our lives after six months or whatever. like I'm sorry, but there's just nothing you could do. It's kind of here. like You just have to deal with it.
00:30:03
Speaker
yeah just meaning they still use it to kind of keep people from catching it if they have it but yeah yeah like if people are really really sick and stuff like i think initially it was good but yeah at this point we can't be like quarantining and at least we haven't really had to do big quarantines or anything since like over the last few years so yeah yeah Nothing like what was happening at the beginning of 2020, at least. Yeah, or if you were trying to travel in 2022. Yeah, right? and ta Yeah.
00:30:44
Speaker
um So, like at this point that it was a quarantine type of island, all the prior inhabitants ah had gone. Like there was basically nobody left. that was It seemed like a permanent type resident and it remained uninhabited until about 1527 when a new doge offered to like, I don't know if it was gifted or sell it to like this group of monks um and being like to settle on it if they wanted it. And it but and they said no, they were like hell no. ah They're giving but not that self-sacrificing.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, over the next several decades more outbreaks of the plague took place and about 1576 there was around 50,000 people or about a third of the population of Venice that ended up dying of the plague about that year and ended up being like their bodies were transported and buried on the island. Oh, so they just buried them there too? Damn. Yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
ah
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it was. Yeah, there was kind of like, um like mass grave type things like they would just like dig a huge hole and all the bodies from like a certain point would go in there. um I did run into stuff people were talking about like some of not all of them were dead and whatever but if you were too sick to fight back they were just going to put you in the hole if they thought you'd die you were gonna die oh no like they joke about in the Monty Python one with the corpse card and i'm not nearly dead yet but like oh that's rough that's so rough you're nearly enough i guess yeah it's there yeah you realize that it's it is very dark comedy based on real history i guess you're like that oh shit
00:32:41
Speaker
That sucks. I guess there would be more than 20 more outbreaks of the plague in Venice. um And at the island's center, the dead and those too sick to protest were burned on giant pyres, I put, like apparently. um So yeah, it seemed like some of them were buried, some of them were burned, and then their ashes might have been buried. That makes sense, it would make more space.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure not sure what qualified like one for the other. um And there was ah also a great Italian plague that happened from 1629 to 1631, which killed about 140,000 people in the Republic of Venice. um And as a result of that plague, there was more than 46,000 more bodies that ended up being transported and buried to the on the island.
00:33:40
Speaker
o Yeah. I mean, I know we had definitely had some outbreaks over the years of things that we don't really have now. The plague, cholera, all the fun ones. Yeah. Oh, damn. There's a lot of people. Yeah, it was kind of, I was not expecting those like types of numbers that made me start thinking about like the catacombs in Paris and like just all the yeah the bodies that are there but I know that accumulated over like centuries and everything this is like this is centuries as well I guess but yeah that's funny you should say that's still a lot ah the the book I'm reading they had to someone but just took shelter and a part of the catacombs and they were saying how I know early eight yeah I want to say it was 1800s when they decided they had
00:34:38
Speaker
um two Sorry, my phone went off. They had too many bodies and started putting all the ones from before them down there. It's so crazy, yeah. It's so creepy, like that's what, like millions or tens of millions of like remains they're estimating. I don't know how they figured that out, like the amount of skulls or something. That would probably be the easiest way, but like godam oh my god yeah because if there's some rooms that are just random bones there's no way to get a possible exact number yeah but just crazy um yeah so that happened um 1645 the nation government built
00:35:24
Speaker
five octagonal fords to protect and control the entrances ah leading to the Venice Lagoon, like the main islands. um So that's kind of like what that third island I talked about that they created. It's a little like octagon that sits on the one side. um That's the man-made part.
00:35:44
Speaker
oh okay cool yeah and of these five forts that they built at the time only the one at the povalia island still stands i guess the other ones um yeah i don't know what happened to the other four exactly but yeah that's the only one still around time has ravaged them beyond repair something quarter was just moving around i guess um He settled in. Oh my gosh, he almost put drink every time or like count every time Gordho purrs in the last one. I think it was last one. Yeah, it was cute.
00:36:27
Speaker
He kept getting picked up on the mic. He was so happy and cuddly. but ah Yeah, you could hear it. All right, by the late 1700s, there was more Lazaretto buildings ah that were constructed on the island and then they were worried about water contamination.
00:36:51
Speaker
um with all of the dead bodies everywhere so they were building new wells and everything. Because isn't this where they put the lepers too? Lazaretto places? Sounds so familiar. They might have been like thrown in. I didn't see anything specifically talking about lepers but... Oh okay. Chuck them in there who knows maybe I'm misremembering. I'm sorry don't listen to me. I saw just a lot of stuff talk about plagues but I assumed that. Okay.
00:37:20
Speaker
very well could have been. It seems like just anybody who was kind of more gravely or seriously sick seems to have been sent here. Sure. Yeah. mean I mean, they have leper colonies. They're one of the islands in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islands. Yeah. It was for lepers. Yeah.
00:37:43
Speaker
ah There was also a point where like a church was operating on the island. um It was built and constructed and they had like this big bell tower.
00:37:56
Speaker
um And I guess Napoleon, like when he a invaded the area, he had like most of the church destroyed except for the bell tower, which is still there today. So it like shows up in the pictures.
00:38:13
Speaker
fucker hu
00:38:16
Speaker
lepolean Over the next few centuries, the Poveglia island remains a quarantine island with no permanent inhabitants. People are just sent there to die or sent there to quarantine and leave.
00:38:32
Speaker
It's not there for all their limbs to fall off with their lip proceed. We don't want to look at you anymore! Outcast! Something. So mean. During the Second World War it was occupied by soldiers and the bodies of war victims were also buried there.
Abandoned Structures and Paranormal Reports
00:38:49
Speaker
Don't know how many right there um that were war victims, but yeah. Yeah. That's unfortunate.
00:39:00
Speaker
They don't deserve to just be like c lumped in there. Nobody does. Just to be thrown in a big pit, obviously. Right. ah Then I thought Island kind of transitions to ah like more psychiatric hospital.
00:39:18
Speaker
In 1922, the hospital is built on the island and according to rumor, um like almost right away on their arrival, patients and staff had begun seeing ghosts of what they thought were plague victims.
00:39:34
Speaker
oh Over the five centuries that had been like buried there, um estimates range from like between 100,000 to upwards of 160,000 people were burned and buried or just buried on the island. so A lot for like when you look at pictures of the island, it's kind of amazing that there would have ever been like that many bodies, even when they say there's 800 homes.
00:40:04
Speaker
on the island. I'm like, how? Like, I don't understand. They must have been tiny. Yeah. And then bringing over people that are already dead just for the purpose of burial. You're like, okay, so they couldn't have taken up that much room. But still, it's very sad to think about for sure. Right. um Yeah. So like the doctors and ah Patients and stuff are reported to see these visions and ghosts of the plague victims who died. And I guess wanting to figure out the source of these visions, there was apparently a resident doctor um who was like, I don't know why he thought by trying to investigate, the best way to do it would be like performing lobotomies and other dangerous experiments on patients to like try and figure out the source of their visions.
00:40:57
Speaker
thats one He's got to love a story that has lobotomies. Oh my god. And this is just some random dude? Sorry, wait. No, it's a... He's a supposedly a doctor like that worked at the psychiatry psychiatric hospital. Oh, because it became a psychiatric hospital. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Weird. That's a lot of bad juju.
00:41:26
Speaker
Right? I was like, all those things. It's a plague island, now it's a psychiatric hospital with lobotomies on it. Like, one bad thing after another. Yeah, there's some heavy vibes there for sure. Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker
I don't know if it's open. I don't know if I'd want to go, but we'll wait till the end. Yeah, we'll get to it. One of the most popular rumors on the island is that that doctor, supposedly tormented and tortured by the patients who were victims of his experiments, but also maybe by the many people who had previously died and were buried on the island, ended up throwing himself from the top of the hospital bell tower.
00:42:12
Speaker
Oh, suicide. Oh, no. Well, something said that he died. And then I ran into a some a couple other things that said he had survived, but was reportedly strangled by a strange mist that came out of the ground, but still like at the scene. And then I ran into other stuff that said that he died years later. So I don't really know. Oh, that's shrouded in mist and legend. Damn.
00:42:42
Speaker
ah There's also kind of no confirmation that this doctor ever existed, so who knows? but
00:42:51
Speaker
um ended up wildly i guess The hospital in Ireland ended up getting abandoned in 1968 and have remained uninhabited ever since.
00:43:06
Speaker
ah from the people nowadays that kind of managed to get there. There's no word on like the goat the ghost of the doctor haunting the island. ah Hello. ah sort Go over there. You're not.
00:43:29
Speaker
Just get right between me and the mic. Why do you have to jump up on that side? I wish that was recorded on video, because he literally just jumped the keyboard, it looked like. I know! I have like two inches of space between me and the mic, and I don't know why he chose to come up from this side and like... How Fenrir walks up every set of stairs. Oh, you're on this side? Well, I'll just squeeze in between you and that side. Good job. Cheers.
00:43:56
Speaker
um
00:44:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, so the ah um islands abandoned once like again by 1968. The surviving buildings on the island consist of a kavana, so like a closed in like boat port.
00:44:19
Speaker
ah There's part of the church, a hospital, an asylum, the bell tower, and then housing and administrative buildings for the staff. I assume of like the hospital and stuff. And they say that the bell tower is the most visible structure um from like the main island, if you're like looking out past the water towards Povelli Island. And that bell tower ah belonged to the church that was built there and after the church was demolished the bell tower I guess was reused and converted into more so of a lighthouse um to like light the way for uh ships and everything that were coming near Venice okay yeah
00:45:11
Speaker
my houses are pretty funky too some of them can be kind of spooky i know i'm like this one's probably really creepy uh it's just because of the history of the island for sure we're like it was a haunted everything and then there was my house yeah and then they built the lighthouse no yeah and three people went missing one stormy night uh no and they're just kind of isolated and yeah Yeah. um So there is, like, what is this source? thank you i Sanctuary
00:45:53
Speaker
Oh my god. What even is this?
00:46:05
Speaker
thanks surea e veron killosar but um They had a lot of really good ah information about it, like really nicely laid out. um Yeah, so I had a little... and Yeah, maybe I'm giving you the French pronunciation. I don't know. Yeah. Okay. Carry on.
00:46:26
Speaker
But ah yeah, this is from directly from that article. It said, since 2004, the island was used for viticulture or growing grapes for wine. Oh, that's famous. And then I added, even though most of the soil is made up of human remains. Yeah. I mean, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Life is short, so drink wine we must. Yeah.
00:46:56
Speaker
maybe Maybe people remains make the best grapes. I don't know. Drink corpse wine, we must. Yeah. There we go. And sorry ah fast forwarding to 2014, the Italian government had tried to distance itself from the island, ah but also kind of trying to, I don't know, make some sort of profit or something of of it at the same time.
00:47:24
Speaker
because they started offering a 99 year lease um for the use of the island but at the same time they created an association called Poveglia for All and it was designed like the association was to prevent if somebody did take them up on like the lease offer that it they could not turn it into a like any sort of holiday resort or like vacation like luxury condos or like anything like that i think it said um yeah just yeah so they're like at least silent but don't turn it into a luxury resort so kind of it seems like nobody's like
00:48:12
Speaker
I know it's been like what, oh i at least 10 years, nobody seems to have done anything with it. Taking them up on the offer. Yeah, because you can't really have control of it. I don't know. I can't just be like, yeah, you're kind of just renting a property, but it does sound a reminder when they like try to option a story into like a movie or something. And they're like, but if you can't make it good, then we just get to keep that money and you go bye bye. I don't know.
00:48:42
Speaker
I don't really understand the business.
00:48:47
Speaker
um I think trying to help with that, there was a thing that happened in 2016 where the Young Architects Association held a competition that invited architects to submit ideas for the construction of a university campus on the island, which sounds wild to me. Okay. Let's just make a haunted ass you university campus on this random island that you need to take a boat to get there. Like, what are you, what are we even doing? I mean, quite the campus, but yeah, okay. yeah Where did you go? It's a haunted university.
00:49:32
Speaker
Is it being backed by like Tim Burton or? Yeah. um What's his face from Ghost Adventures? Fucking Zach Baggins. Is he gonna like run the fucking campus? Oh no.
00:49:51
Speaker
um The website also said to date the island is off limits to tourists and even local fishing boats and stuff. Like really intentionally steer clear of coming anywhere near the island.
00:50:05
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, they don't like it. um Because of the island's morbid reputation, rumor has it that it would be possible to bribe a carrier for about $300 Canadian or 200 euros um to kind of take you there, wow if you can find somebody. um But it is pretty dangerous on there and it is isolated as like, there's no way to call for help. There's no Like nothing there. Apart from the start of one of those um episodes we were talking about earlier of Mr. Ball, people that went where they weren't supposed to go. Yeah. We're like a horror movie where a whole bunch of white tourists are like, oh, you shouldn't go here. The locals say not to. And then you're like, but we're white people. We have we have one cell phone and a shitty map.
00:50:59
Speaker
I just need a selfie. Yeah. Yeah. ah
00:51:05
Speaker
ah yeah
00:51:09
Speaker
there It says apart from the few buildings that are still standing, but also like forbidden and like really dangerous to enter, the vegetation has really overgrown. ah Ceilings have caved in and staircases have fully collapsed.
00:51:26
Speaker
like it's just If you went in there, like something could fall on you. um You don't want to go on to like the second story of anything. um
00:51:37
Speaker
And the structures. No, it does look kind of pretty. Like I found a few pictures that people have taken. It looks nice. Like there's Ivy and like vegetation that is like grown everywhere.
Modern View of Poveglia Island
00:51:50
Speaker
And then there's also like really creepy hospital beds, but like Ivy has grown around it. So it's like, pretty and green, but you're like, but that's a hospital bed. Yes. No, this is a whole aesthetic that it's not cottagecore, but like, there's a subreddit you can follow called abandoned porn. And it's not someone's magazines they left.
00:52:11
Speaker
House in the neighborhood, down the street. although Foreclosure and stuff like that in real life. But yeah, it's it's cars in the woods and shit like that. Yeah. House has grown over. Yeah. Looks so cool. Yeah, this very much looks like that. And the structures like the bridge that was ah joining the two islands ah are basically impassable and dangerous to even go on, even for they described the most experienced explorer.
00:52:41
Speaker
yeah So if you do manage to get anybody to take you it can be pretty dangerous if you're not set up or you don't have like, I don't know, like a satellite phone and that kind of stuff to if anything happens. Yeah.
00:52:57
Speaker
don't recommend this dark tourism. I do have some stuff about hauntings that people have that have made it to the island have talked about. Nice. They describe feeling it feeling like oppressive, ah felt like they were being observed and watched as they kind of walked and explored.
00:53:23
Speaker
And the paranormal the parentnal activity that occurs is said to increase like tenfold during the night. And since 2009, paranormal investigation groups that have gone to the island have reported hearing voices, ah screams, they've heard like a lot of men's and other unexplained noises. So.
00:53:53
Speaker
I mean. Screams. Great. Yeah, an abandoned island. I'm just, well, just complaining because, god damn it, they got left here to die. And they're not nearly dead yet. Just a flesh wound. I was just gonna say, just a scratch.
00:54:16
Speaker
feeling much better. but ah And I guess using like technology and stuff, they've also recorded unusual electromagnetic fields throughout the island, ah which is really, really bizarre because there's actually no electricity I guess of any kind or like any electrical sort electricity sources available on the island so okay yeah they have no idea i guess where this is coming from uh yeah that's odd right like there's nothing but just i guess the what what do they call it when they get picked up the ghostly voices and emf electromagnetic
00:55:05
Speaker
magna me phenomena metron um hello Spectronomy? Forensic Spectralonomy? Yeah. yeah i don't I know nothing. Visitors have also claimed to hear a bell ringing even though the bell from must be the bell tower was removed in the 1960s and the nearest church is over 10 kilometers away. um That must be like... bell
00:55:36
Speaker
yeah
00:55:46
Speaker
Oh, these were little stories. I, I didn't run across these anywhere else. This was from the little house of horrors dot.com. Horrors, not horrors, horrors. No, I've seen that source. I may have used it this time. I can't recall. There's definitely some good ones that have nice either listicles or like, yeah, little shallow dives or whatever. Yeah.
00:56:13
Speaker
yeah they had some stuff i didn't see anywhere else like uh little maria is a spirit that is seen on the island for over 400 years it's a childlike spirit uh most likely died from the plague and is said to roam the beach while she cries in a heartbreaking way oh that's creepy damn girl i hate the little kid ones there's also some spirits from the time it was used as a psychiatric hospital there's petro maybe that's the screams yeah oh petro a man with two amputated legs used to race his wheelchair through the hospital
00:57:08
Speaker
We used to do that at the old folks' home when we were bored. We had legs, though. Just to be clear. People claim that they can hear his phantom wheelchair racing up and down the corridors. Oh, damn. That's very specific. No, I can't do it. I'm just trying to think of what it would sound like. In greasy wheel or squeaky wheel?
00:57:37
Speaker
yeah just like someone's arms pumping question I guess there's also a spirit named Frederico who grins and laughs out loud the entire day.
00:57:50
Speaker
It's creepy, I don't like that. And thispi for smile the spirit of a young female is seen regularly as well. She has a terrifying expression on her face, and people say she's scared of the mad doctor who still performs his sick experiments here.
00:58:10
Speaker
oh I don't like the scared spirits that are scared of the other bad ghosts. It's an episode like that on Supernatural. Yeah, right? People stuck in... a how Limbo? Yeah, Limbo were like reenacting the like trauma or whatever leading up to their death. Yeah, that's always sad.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'd rather just be a residual haunting where its it looks like they're reenacting it, but they're not really there. Like, I don't know. Yeah, they're not reliving the torture. Yeah. There's also, I guess, a pair of huge eyes that have been seen just below the water surface. And people have seen pace paces seen faces behind the windows of the hospital. Don't like that. two Huge eyes, faces. Okay. Damn.
00:59:11
Speaker
ah People claim being watched and even followed around the island during their visit. Some get emotional when stepping on the island, feeling deep dread and sorrow. And... Oh, this I thought was really creepy. It said that the hospital can be entered through one of several places, but the easiest entrance to get into the hospital is also the creepiest. You have to crawl through one of the cremators, like...
00:59:40
Speaker
Fucking oven. Yeah, like to get in the hospital. The actual crematorium machine. Yeah, like one of the incinerator type things. I guess everything else, like there's other ways to get in. I guess this is said to be the easiest. So I think structurally, maybe the other ones have kind of collapsed. So that's very creepy, like having to fucking crawl through that.
01:00:09
Speaker
very anything spelunk get into a category i don't know i think i'm out if i can't easily walk back out of where i'm going into yeah if there's not a a clearly marked walking trail that like with directions it's like here's uh there's a resting area with a little picnic table and a garbage can An elevator or stairs, just something. yeah like A silly slide, I don't know. have Visitors who go to the hospital claim to see shadows on the walls that appear to follow them throughout the facility. And sometimes people report getting scratched and pushed, I think while they're inside. So that's pretty creepy. I don't like being scratched and pushed by anyone.
01:01:05
Speaker
And clearly the spectral people. Yeah.
01:01:12
Speaker
No, boy, I know. Oh, these are a couple couple things from that. Sanctuary Veronique Lessard, whoever. I'm sorry. The stat. No. Lizard. No.
01:01:31
Speaker
lizzo yeah
01:01:35
Speaker
It said that in 2016 there was a group of Colorado Americans who apparently had access to the island during the night and must be had access to the island during night and had to be rescued by the Venetian firemen.
01:01:54
Speaker
Upon arrival, the tourists were supposedly in a state of shock and panic and claimed to have seen and heard paranormal entities. It's like they called to be rescued.
01:02:08
Speaker
to while you guys got yourself into that situation. I also read an account that like a guy without a cell phone and everything went to the island by himself. And then he had decided he was going to, I can't remember where he said he was going to sleep, but he got like really creeped out. So he decided to relocate, like packed up his sleeping bag and everything and took it to the docks like right where he would get picked up first thing in the morning, he had like set up.
01:02:41
Speaker
Fucking snooze you! ah
01:02:47
Speaker
Damn! You're recording the video next time, just in case he does that. Sorry. Just a mock-off of him. Yeah, you look at me like, what are you talking about? I'm so cute! I'm innocent.
01:03:05
Speaker
it's not distracting at all just in the middle of a story just a cat goes in front of your face oh okay uh yeah so he relocated to the docks because he had lined up to be picked up like oh that next morning uh because he didn't have a phone or anything uh and it said his flashlight to pick up but like yeah it's not this is not good i think it even said his flashlight like either stopped working or that's all he had with him. So he basically like laid curled curled up on the docks in his sleeping bag with like only his head exposed, like facing the island with like the flashlight like clutched in his hand. And he said he laid like that for eight hours until the rescue boat came. And I was like, okay, cool.
01:03:58
Speaker
<unk> your knife under your head your swisser And it was so stupid. He's like, I didn't see any entities and I don't believe the islands haunted. And it was like, but then why do you act like was really weird to me I was like, your story makes no sense. Yeah. What kind of cred are you going for? Wow. I was like, oh okay. It was like, but you like decided not to lay here and lay on the dock. Like so you were shaking and stuff.
01:04:29
Speaker
Whatever. It's not haunted, I'm just a coward.
01:04:33
Speaker
yeah ah Also from that website it said according to paranormal investigations um and the inhabitants of Venice, the island of Poveglia would be considered one of the most haunted islands in the world.
01:04:52
Speaker
and in less authorized by city authorities. ah Anyone attempting to venture onto the island would without prior permission is actually subject to heavy fines. um and like I don't know if they could charge you for like trespassing or what. It's said that you can apply if you're a paranormal investigation group.
01:05:15
Speaker
Uh, you can apply or like send in stuff, uh, to get approval to go on the island. There might just be a ghost adventures episode. Yeah. I think it said that somebody did. I'm pretty sure it was. I think, I think I've heard of one, but yeah, I don't think too many people get to go out.
01:05:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's that like after you submit the paperwork and try and get permission, it can take up to a year for it to get approved. So like, it's a long time. Yeah, I don't know what goes into it. That is Comic Con. The San Diego one. We've, yeah, we've tried in the past. I don't know. I don't know what you gotta do.
01:05:59
Speaker
um Yeah, so locals recommend that tourists do not set foot on the island. They consider it to be cursed. And I ran across one thing that said it had been given the nickname, The Island of No Return. and number I like it. I like it. Episode title, I'm thinking. Yeah!
01:06:23
Speaker
ah um there I guess at some point there's been rumors of a prison that was constructed and like ran on the island and this remains a heated debate. ah Some claim to have identified prison-like prison-like structures, but um yeah almost everything says like there was no never any actual prison that operated there so i don't know where that rumor is coming from really yeah i mean the hospital doesn't it's a psychiatric hospital it doesn't look that friendly um no i'm sure they could use it as a place to hold people yeah
01:07:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's an institution. but ah Yeah.
01:07:19
Speaker
um I also ran across something that said it was like after it was a psychiatric hospital briefly, it was like a long term care facility or like something. It was like, damn, it just like.
01:07:31
Speaker
It's haunted. Now we're going to send old people here. That just sucks. And like, is that just what we're calling it now? Because we're just also sending people there to kind of be in palliative care or whatever. Yeah. yeah I don't know. um I did run across a grandma there. Sorry. yeah Don't do it. I ran across one thing that I don't know who did this analysis. Other stuff have said this is just claims.
01:08:00
Speaker
But it's reported that through analysis that was done on the soil on the island, that 60% of the soil consists of human remains and ashes. So my god it's a lot. ah Wow.
01:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, and apparently they're still they I don't know if people are still growing grapes there for wine. They were in 2004. Oh, right. So that's weird. But yeah, but I don't think it's like was it unsanitary you're not supposed to use dog poop as fertilizer but i think we are supposed to go back to nature but that's like that amount that concentration yeah yeah it's really high uh who knows what that could actually you know do to the soil or long-term effects like
01:08:58
Speaker
I don't know if you look at it like as I said like it looks very lush it looks like it's really overgrown and the trees are like thriving it's basically yeah like tree canopy and then the building like everything is so packed uh you can't really see like the ground or anything so there's no dolls hanging everywhere i no
01:09:26
Speaker
Sounds prettier than that other haunted island then. Yeah, like I wish I had found more pictures. It seems like a lot of the sources and stuff when I was trying to look it up kind of use like, I don't know, stock photos. I kind of want to say of like, here's a ah picture of a mass grave. Here's the same picture of the island building like 82 times. ah And then no it's probably hard to find ones that you can actually use.
01:09:56
Speaker
I I didn't have time to, but I was going to try and see if I could find like drone footage. Like maybe somebody's done like a flyover of it or something like that. Cause it's not, it's not too far. Like there's rented things that you can do. That's kind of more socially accepted where, uh, they'll like take you by boat kind of like past the island as part of a tour and like talk about it, but you won't like go too close to it. So yeah. Yeah.
01:10:30
Speaker
ah and um Yeah, so maybe somebody's taken a drone or something out there and sometimes that's the best way it doesn't disturb yeah stuff and less dangerous. YouTube video or something we can watch. Yeah, I just ran out of time but if i ran ah if I find one, I'll put it on the website. Yeah, fair enough.
01:10:54
Speaker
No, I hear you. That's why I was like, said to you, oh, we should start recording. you I was like, and more I was like, because I know I want to put some pictures up for my segment or show or whatever if we end up splitting this one. So I was like, yeah, I better let's record. We got to get some stuff out for our peeps. And yeah, then some of them have more pictures than others. That's just the way it is. Yeah, I didn't run across run across much.
01:11:23
Speaker
All right, buddy, can you chill? All right, wow. He's looking at me like, but, but, hi. Oh, you just went, I can see Gordo in profile. He's, depending on how I try to cut it out or we try to cut it out, he's left over the keyboard twice. It's just like fast and the furious thing over there. um He's just, look at him, he's just sitting on the desk, just staring me down. Look! Yeah, his like at think half his face was still in profile because he's just like trying to be right up in your face. Can you look at the whole time?
01:12:05
Speaker
Just staring at me. Are you going to attack me? You're making it such direct, prolonged eye contact right now. I don't like it. That normally means you're going to try and attack me. I don't know.
01:12:19
Speaker
Hello everyone, Kelsey here. We didn't record our regular outros, we weren't sure if we were going to be splitting the episode, but just wanted to come in and say thank you for listening and be sure to tune in next week where we'll have a Lana segment and some more Haunted AF and thanks for listening. ah Shout out for Patreon. We have tons of bonus episodes on there where you can join, become one of our special Illuminati and different levels, got different things. You can choose an episode topic.
01:12:59
Speaker
You could get shoutouts or just access to all of our monthly bonus episodes and mini-sodes and video-sodes that we've done. So thank you for listening and catch you next time.
01:13:19
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Castles Encrypted. We love all our listeners and appreciate every subscriber, every new review, every listen, rate, and download. Our music is by Cobie Affair and our cover art is by Antonio Garcia. We are also a proud member of Dark Cast Network where you can find the best and spookiest of all indie podcasts. Follow us on social media where we are at Castles and Cryptids on mostly all of the things, now including TikTok. Check out our bonus content on Patreon.
01:13:50
Speaker
Cryptic clashes, video mini-sodes of your hosts making asses of themselves, Ask Me Anything, quizzes, other special episodes, and more. Starting at just $2 a month, you can get one to two extra episodes depending on your level. We produce, edit, and research everything ourselves, and any support you can lend helps us to keep it cryptic.