Adam Mark, a 36-year-old urban explorer from North Wales, says he spent three hours earlier this month exploring Poveglia, the 18-acre island off the coast of Venice long nicknamed the "Island of Ghosts." Mark, who documents his visits on the YouTube channel @AdamMark, told the Daily Mail that he and a partner entered the officially closed site and walked through derelict structures including what he believes was a housing block with a clock tower.
Poveglia has a long, grim history. The island was used as a quarantine station for people suffering from the plague in the 1700s and later housed an asylum before being abandoned. It is widely reported that tens of thousands of plague victims were interred there; some accounts put the number as high as 160,000, a figure that has contributed to the island's chilling reputation. Authorities have declared the area off limits to visitors because some buildings are in unsafe condition.
Mark said he is drawn to "mysterious and abandoned locations" by a "curiosity" about the unknown and admitted the pastime had become "more of an addiction." In his account to the Daily Mail, he described gaining access by what he called questionable measures, and he declined to provide specifics about how he reached the island. He said the visit lasted around three hours and that most of the structures he saw were heavily decayed.
Visitors and historians have long debated Poveglia's exact role during outbreaks and the scale of burials; contemporary records from the 18th century are incomplete and numbers vary across sources. The island's later use as a psychiatric facility and its subsequent abandonment have added to local legends and media portrayals that label it among the world's most haunted places. Local and regional authorities have maintained restrictions on landing and exploration, citing safety risks from unstable buildings and potential hazards posed by derelict infrastructure.
Urban explorers such as Mark often post footage and accounts of restricted sites, drawing attention to preservation and safety questions while prompting criticism from officials who warn against trespassing. Mark's visit and the images he shared with the Daily Mail underline the tension between public curiosity about derelict historical sites and official efforts to limit access for safety and preservation reasons.
Poveglia remains closed to the public, and plans for its future have been the subject of intermittent debate among Italian authorities, historians and preservationists. The island's reputation as a site of mass burials and a former asylum continues to attract tourists, writers and urban explorers, even as officials maintain that any visit should be avoided because of the risks posed by its decaying structures.