For centuries Poveglia has been a refuge, a defense, an area of exile, and a marketing ground for the diseased and deceased. 

In 1348, the plague arrived in venice and Poveglia, like several alternative little islands, became a quarantine colony. Fearing the unchecked unfold of the illness, metropolis exiled several of its symptom-bearing voters there. At the island's center the dead and also the dying – who were mistaken for dead bodies – were burned on large pyres. These fires would burn yet {again|over again|all over again} in 1630 once the bubonic plague again sweptwing through the town.

In the twentieth century the island was once more used as a quarantine station, however in 1922 the prevailing buildings were regenerate into a hospital for the insane. This went on till 1968, once the hospital was closed and also the island once more became unpopulated.

Legends surround the island of hauntings by the victims of plague and war, moreover as a crazy doctor of the asylum who purportedly butchered and tortured patients.

Today, the island is closed to locals and tourists. In recent years, Italian construction crews tried to revive the previous hospital building, however unexpectedly stopped while not reason.