An ‘island of death’ has experienced a surge of visitors after becoming a ‘dark tourist hotspot’.
Poveglia, which is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, was once both a quarantine station and a mass burial ground for 160,000 victims of the Black Plague.
If anyone showed any symptoms they were forced onto the island, with many being burned alive.
A mental hospital was later opened on the 18 acre land, where a doctor conducted lobotomies before jumping out of a bell tower, locals claim.
The area was eventually abandoned in 1986, but influencers are now flocking to ‘the world’s most haunted island’ to capture footage for views – despite no one being allowed to visit.
YouTube channel Yes Theory visited the site four years ago, and the three-person crew said it felt ‘very eerie’.
Matt Nadin, a salesman from Sheffield, posted footage of his trip to the island, Finders Beepers History Seekers.
He 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 burned all the bodies and left them where they lay.
‘The island has never been cleared properly, so everything has just been left.
‘Later on, when it was turned into an asylum because people were shoved there out of the way of prying eyes, they started experimenting 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 weird and eerie, although you could tell from the tiles and archways that 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 taken over, and it was typical of a horror movie with all the vines and creepers.
‘Definitely, an experience I won’t forget in a hurry.’
It is rumoured the doctor who performed lobotomies jumped from the bell tower at the centre of the island after being haunted by ghosts, which has now been completely closed off.
The land is now weeed-ridden and human ashed are believed to make up 50% of the soil.
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