Post-Plague Poveglia
After its use as a quarantine station faded away, Poveglia opened an isolated mental hospital in 1922. The hospital reportedly tortured its patients. They were subject to unnecessary, barbaric procedures like electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy. They were physically restrained, beaten, and sometimes left in a solitary cell for long timespans. The hospital closed in 1968, but the island remained accessible to the public. But the bleak reputation of the hospital continued, and the island closed to the public in 2014. Nobody is allowed to enter Poveglia. It is, according to legend, one of the most haunted places in Europe. That hasn’t stopped the landowners from trying to sell the island for development, possibly into a tourist destination, but so far nobody has wanted to buy an island whose soil may be comprised of human bones and ashes.