Maya Bhadauria
What is Ta Pu? So it generally means a piece of land surrounded by water. Tourists are attracted to see the island for twelve months, but even if you want to, you cannot go to the island which is located in a corner of the world. Spread over 18 acres in Italy, this dangerous island is known as 'Poveglia'. It ranks third among haunted places and is considered the number 1 haunted island in the world. Are those on this island so discriminatory that even the Italian government needed to ban it? Poveglia is located on the Venetian Gulf between two beautiful cities of Italy, Venice and Lido. There was a time when the island was inhabited by humans, but then a terrible tragedy stopped people from going there. It is about sixteenth century. At that time, the whole of Italy was in the grip of a terrible disease called the plague. Like worms, people were being pushed into the face of death or living on the verge of dying. The most dangerous plague in all of Europe made Italy its victim.
Poveglia Becomes a Quarantine As the plague was spreading rapidly, the Italian government made the difficult decision to send all patients to Poveglia. The island was in a secluded location so it was used as a plague quarantine station. All those who died of plague were buried here. Gradually the number of plague victims reached millions. As a quarantine facility, sick people could be kept here for a maximum of 40 days, but conditions worsened to such an extent that a person or patient once brought to the island never got a chance to return. According to the knowledge of historians, about 1 lakh 60 thousand people were burned alive on this island in order to reduce the number of sick people. Italy had not yet recovered from the scourge of the plague, when a disease called Cala Bukhar, or Calajar, took hold of it again. Many people also died of this disease. The corpses of those who died of this incurable disease were abandoned on Poveglia Island.
A mental hospital was built in 1922 on this island, which witnessed the death of millions of souls that possessed sick patients. After that, ghostly incidents started happening on this island. Staff and patients living at the hospital claim to have experienced spirits on the island and some have even seen ghosts. Even from a paranormal point of view, the island became so mysterious that at night it was difficult to distinguish between the living and the dead on the island. According to doctors living here, it became common to hear scary noises at night. It was also believed that the spirits wandering here would subdue sick patients.
Even the doctors of Atmao Ghar Mental Hospital could not understand whether a person really had a mental illness or was possessed by a ghost! Not only this, doctors also started dying along with patients. Due to this, the mental hospital had to be closed quickly. After such tragedies, many scientists and explorers went to this island to find out the secret, but some of them could not return. Those who went a little further and came back simply said that this island is a living hell in our world. One may go here of their own free will, but their return depends on the spirits there. Now the island is only abode of spirits. It is due to such mysterious reasons that the Italian government banned the public from coming here. Even the fishermen cannot fish around the island, because the fishing nets do not catch fish, but human bones.
It felt like we were watching a horror movie, according to the news published in 'The Sun', British researchers Matt Nadin and Andy Thompson went to the island after the permission of the government. He shared some videos and photographs of the island. In it, the things of the mental hospital could be seen. Containers used for cremation were also seen in the video. According to Matt and Andy, the experience of going up the island was dangerous. There is no cleaning after burning people. As if a pile of corpses had been piled up. We also heard the ringing of bells there, which was very scary for us. There was no movement here for years, so there were bushes and trees everywhere. It felt as if we had come to watch the shooting of a horror movie.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
