L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014 www.italoamericano.com 8 The Hunted Island of Poveglia (Part one) SALVATORE DIVITA O f t h e m a n y i s l a n d s s u r - rounding Venice, there is one located to the south, quite close to the shoreline of Lido. It is the island of Poveglia, referred to by some as "the island of ter- ror." Venetians prefer not to discuss the island nor answer questions concerning it. They simply remark that it is harm- less to those who keep their dis- tance. It has been said that "… while the rest of Venice is gov- erned by Comune di Venezia, the island of Poveglia remains firmly in the jurisdiction of the Devil." It has also been said by t h o s e w h o k n o w i t w e l l , "Quando muore un cattivo, si sveglia a Poveglia:" Translated: " W h e n a n e v i l m a n d i e s , h e awakens on Poveglia." There seems to be something f o r e b o d i n g a b o u t P o v e g l i a I s l a n d , a k i n d o f p r e s e n c e , according to some who have been there. Whether one cares to believe it is up to the individ- ual. Presently, the island is o w n e d b y t h e I t a l i a n Government. Poveglia sits upon the water with its bell tower protruding into the sky. It is deceivingly p e a c e f u l a n d s e r e n e w i t h a plush overabundance of green- ery. Yet, notwithstanding the many frightening stories which abound, it is invitingly tempting to the audaciously curious who might find it doubly intriguing to pay it a visit, especially since visiting the island is prohibited by law. Every once in a while, the young and the restless, seeking thrills, manage to outfox the police patrol boats and gain access to the island. Those who have managed to set foot upon Poveglia have also vowed never to return. Their expectation of fun seems to vanish abruptly, r e p l a c e d b y s p e c t e r s w h i c h cause the hairs to stand up on the back of the neck. They talk of the island's "heavy atmos- phere of evil," of being sur- rounded by a chorus of unceas- ing screams and tortured moans which come from nowhere and from everywhere, permeating the island and making even the shortest stay unbearable. The island of Poveglia, when viewed from the air, appears to be shaped much like a crude a r r o w h e a d p o i n t e d s o u t h - ward. Long ago, a canal was cut east and west through the center of the island, separating t h e n o r t h e r n a n d s o u t h e r n halves. Between both halves is a single connecting pedestrian bridge. The shorelines of the southern half of the island come together at the southernmost portion, giving the arrowhead a rounded tip, just above a tiny dot of an island in the shape of an octagon and giving Poveglia the overall appearance of an o v e r - i n f l a t e d e x c l a m a t i o n point. T h e o r i g i n o f P o v e g l i a Island's haunting is traced back to a time when Venice enjoyed a n a b u n d a n c e o f t r a d e a n d wealth. Ships from all parts of the world brought both benefits and pestilence. According to Chinese records, the Bubonic P l a g u e o r B a c k D e a t h w a s believed to have originated in M o n g o l i a a r o u n d 1 3 4 6 a n d m y s t e r i o u s l y s p r e a d w h e n Italian merchants attempting to avoid the plague, unwittingly carried it with them as they fled on their ships. What the mer- chants did not know was that the disease was carried by thou- sands of fleas on rats which had taken up residency on merchant ships: Many of those ships were bound for Venice. However, flea-bitten rats were not entirely to blame for the spread of the disease. Much of it was spread b y p e o p l e f l e e i n g f r o m a n infected area to an uninfected a r e a . E v e n t u a l l y , t h e p l a g u e spread outward to the rest of Europe, killing a third of the human population. Venice was ripe for just such an event and was destined to bear its share of m i s e r y . M a n y p e o p l e w e r e becoming sick, so Poveglia was chosen as the island for quaran- tine. Quarantine is the process of separating infected people from h e a l t h y o n e s f o r a p e r i o d o f forty days. The idea dates as far back as the Old Testament when rules existed to keep lepers iso- lated from the rest of the popu- lation. But it wasn't until the plague of the fourteenth century that Venice established the first formal system of quarantine, a word derived from the Latin word meaning "forty." In theory, a system of quar- antine would have been an ideal method of handling this deadly situation. If it worked out as planned, the infected victims, who became well again, would b e a l l o w e d t o r e e n t e r society. But it didn't work out that way. For the most part, no one could have anticipated the speed with which the plague came upon them. It was no longer a question of temporarily separating the diseased from the healthy. For many, the trip to Poveglia was a death sentence. Detachments of troops were d i s p a t c h e d t o p a t r o l c a n a l s , alleys and tenements in and around Venice in search of any- o n e e x h i b i t i n g t h e s l i g h t e s t symptom of the plague. Those with symptoms or perceived symptoms, were forced onto barges to be ferried to Poveglia. F a m i l i e s w e r e t o r n a p a r t . Husbands and wives were sepa- r a t e d f r o m t h e i r c h i l d r e n . A n y o n e p e r c e i v e d t o h a v e symptoms of the plague was c a r t e d o f f a n d l o a d e d o n t o b a r g e s . U p o n r e a c h i n g P o v e g l i a , p a s s e n g e r s w e r e unloaded onto the landing dock and transferred to new custodi- ans. The dead were moved by handcart over the bridge to the location of the plague pits. The disease spread with a vengeance and the bodies continued com- ing. The island had become so overcrowded with plague vic- tims that many of the living, c o n s i d e r e d t o b e a s g o o d a s dead, were simply thrown into the burial pits or onto bonfires to be incinerated along with those already dead. As the plague intensified, panic escalated to the point that t h o s e s h o w i n g t h e s l i g h t e s t s y m p t o m s w e r e t a k e n f r o m t h e i r h o m e s k i c k i n g a n d s c r e a m i n g a n d t h r o w n o n t o piles of rotting corpses and set ablaze. The fires that burned at that time would burn once more in the 1630s when the plague again swept through Venice. Eventually, the crisis sub- s i d e d a n d t h e d i s e a s e dissipated. Calm was once again restored in Venice and the island of Poveglia enjoyed a period of tranquility of about three hundred years. However, during all that time, it is unclear if the island was ever rumored to be haunted. If Poveglia was indeed haunted, it seemed that no one was aware of it, because for centuries, it remained unin- habited and consequently, there were no ghosts to be seen … that is, until after 1922, when the island became home to a psychiatric hospital. To be continued Poveglia Island, circa 1779, print by Tironi-Sandi

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