The ‘haunted' Venice plague island locals are turning into paradise

Times

17 hours ago

In a wild and remote island in the Venetian lagoon, nature provides a respite from the stresses of the tourist crush. Bushes burst with juicy blackberries, lavender hums with bees and the air is a cacophony of screeching birds. Thorny paths wind through dense woodland and past shaded glades, opening onto distant views of Venice's working class Giudecca district and Porto Marghera's industrial sprawl.
'From here, you start to have some pretty amazing views,' said Sandro Caparelli, 53, a landscape specialist who has long been a habitué of the abandoned island of Poveglia, as he takes in the panorama.
A visit to Poveglia — a tight cluster of three islands, two natural and one manmade — feels closer to a rainforest expedition than traipsing along the crowded streets and canals of Venice's historic centre, 6km north by boat. There is no running water or electricity, and access comes in the form of a homemade wooden jetty.
Yet residents' long-coveted dream of making the outcrop a paradise getaway is about to become a reality.
The Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone) activist group plans to transform the untamed outcrop into a natural oasis open to locals and like-minded visitors alike. There will be a herb garden, pond and reception area shaded by trees.
'This is the part of the island that will remain more wild, where nature will reign supreme' says Caparelli, a founding member of the group and now the project manager overseeing the island's transformation, as he strides past bushes of thistles, pungent mint, ailanthus trees and towering oaks.
The activists got the green light this month after years of court battles over stalled bureaucracy, more than a decade after first fending off a financial offer from Luigi Brugnaro, the wealthy man who is now Venice's mayor.
Italy's public property agency has awarded them a six-year lease for the upper island. Their victory has become a symbol of defiance, proving that locals on the frontline of overtourism can wrest potential luxury playgrounds from the clutches of hotel developers.
The burning question now is whether tourists will descend on what has remained — until now — Venice's best kept secret. 'There's a real risk,' says Caparelli, after steering his boat past privatised islands. 'Do we really want a vaporetto [water bus] with a public stop here? It's a big question.'
Poveglia was first settled as early as the 5th century as a safe haven during Barbarian raids. The Venetian Republic turned it into a quarantine station for plague victims in 1793, and buildings on the central island were later turned into a psychiatric hospital. Abandoned and sealed off in the 1960s, it gained a reputation as haunted, earning nicknames such as 'the island of no return' and 'the island of ghosts'. According to local legend, plague victims were once dumped there in a mass grave.
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More recently, Venetians with boats have used it for illicit barbecues, full-day get-togethers and sleepovers in tents. 'My daughter was practically brought up here,' says Caparelli, kicking aside a few stray boxes attesting to recent gatherings. 'We can pass through here because we cropped it for a party,' he explains, stepping through a canopied passageway.
The push to save the island began in 2014 when the state put a 99-year lease up for auction. Determined not to let their retreat go the same way as San Clemente and the newly rebranded Isola delle Rose, which have been snapped up by hospitality giants to become five-star resorts, some 200 Giudecca residents set out to raise the €20,000 needed to enter the bidding. The effort brought together a diverse range of locals including university professors, tour guides and taxi boat drivers. In just over a month, more than 4,000 donors contributed about €450,000.
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The association was ultimately outbid by Brugnaro, who offered €513,000. But his bid was deemed 'inadequate', and the auction was scrapped. Poveglia per Tutti sought a shorter lease, twice taking the state to court to force a response. Horse-trading helped win over the public property agency, and the University of Verona launched a joint three-year PhD programme, now in its second year, using Poveglia as a pilot project to develop a replicable questionnaire-based system to measure the environmental and social impact of regeneration projects.
'It needs to remain a place of peace,' said Fabrizia Zamarchi, 62, the association's president, enjoying Venetian 'cicchetti' tapas in Giudecca, along a stretch of water facing the historic centre beyond. 'We will find a way to discourage the tourist groups … Poveglia must remain as it is.'
Over in the historic centre, however, news of the island's transformation is getting around. 'I love history and I'm very interested in the history of Venice,' says Wyman Yip, 50, a Hong Kong-born history teacher in a Dublin secondary school. 'I read about the island, with its abandoned chapel and plague victims buried there … If I had time I'd definitely visit it.'
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Ga Eun Lee, 23, a visitor from Seoul, was also curious. 'It could become an attractive place,' she says after seeing pictures, 'but for now it needs a bit of care'.
For Caparelli, the immediate priority is to build a solid jetty to replace the makeshift one, and the association will draw up a detailed timeline for the entire project from September. While it is not covered by the agreement, the project manager cannot help imagining Poveglia's middle island — with its crumbling former hospital shelters, rusty machinery and collapsed staircases in rooms overrun by trees — being brought back to life at some point.
Yet even the immediate six-year lease could evaporate at any moment. The agreement includes a clause allowing the public property agency to terminate the concession if a serious buyer steps forward. 'If an investor came along willing to renovate the whole complex … that would clearly mean revoking the agreement,' said Angelo Pizzin, deputy director of the Veneto branch of the agency. 'We'd have no choice.'