Poveglia Island: A Haunted Place In Italy
Wikimedia CommonsConsidering that Poveglia Island was once used for an infamous asylum, it’s no wonder why it’s thought to be one of the most haunted places in the world.
Located between Venice and Lido, Poveglia is uninhabited and off-limits to visitors. And legends say that’s because it’s haunted. It’s even been claimed that eerie moans and screams echo from across the waters. And considering the ominous history of the island, it’s little wonder why.
Originally a self-governing island, over time Poveglia was used as a burial ground for victims of the plague and a place to put soon-to-be victims. Both dead and barely alive bodies were burned, buried, or left to rot there.
The island’s history got even creepier once a mental hospital was built there in 1922. Rumors say that doctors used the secluded island as a place to enact their most twisted fantasies on their vulnerable patients.
One particularly heinous doctor was believed to have conducted a number of horrific experiments on patients, including lobotomies with no anesthesia — or consent. He allegedly performed his darkest experiments inside the hospital’s bell tower, and the stories say that the screams from the tortured patients rang out across the entire island.
But they also say that the doctor eventually paid for his demented deeds. He began to be plagued by the ghosts of those whom he tortured and, after going insane from all the hauntings, he flung himself off the top of the tower.
Now, his story just adds to the terror and death that make up this island’s macabre history.
The Stanley Hotel: A Haunted Place In Estes Park, Colorado
Wikimedia CommonsConsidering that the Stanley Hotel inspired The Shining, there’s little wonder why this place gives people the creeps.
The Stanley Hotel in the Colorado Rockies is the hotel that inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, so there’s no question why it’s a popular destination for ghost hunters. Once you enter the supposedly haunted halls of the Stanley, you are chillingly reminded of just how much life imitates art.
King came up with the idea for The Shining after he and his wife spent the night in the hotel. He had a terrifying nightmare about his son being chased by a fire hose and knew that he had to write his thoughts down.
“I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies,” King said. “And by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”
Some orbs captured on camera inside the Stanley Hotel.
And King isn’t the only person to have a terrifying experience at the hotel, which is widely believed to be one of America’s most haunted places. Numerous ghostly encounters have been reported, including the ghosts of the original owners of the hotel, Freelan Stanley and his wife, roaming different areas, keeping an eye on admin tasks, and playing the piano.
Other paranormal activities that hotel guests have reported include disembodied voices and footsteps in the hallways and rooms, ghostly faces, phantom children running in the halls, and impressions of bodies on the beds during a time when a room was unoccupied.
To this day, thousands of people flock to this hotel — which was scary enough to even keep the king of horror novels awake at night.
