The city of Venice, the Queen of the Adriatic, the Drawing Room of Europe, is one of the most highly-rated destinations on any tourist’s bucket list. And while most people come here for the incredible canals, iconic gondoliers, Byzantine architecture and masked figures of Carnival, those seeking a darker side of the city won’t be disappointed. A night approaches, Venice seems to transform itself as the sun sets against the rippling waters. So many day-tripping tourists or those from the cruise ships head back for the night and the city is home to mostly locals and the local spirits.
A city as old and as raucous as Venice is bound to have its fair share of dark histories. Along with these ghoulish tales are bound to come stories of ghosts and haunting! I have laid out in the map below all the spots where you can go ghost hunting to see if you can spot a spectre! But even if you’re not lucky enough to see a ghost for yourself, these shadowy stories of Venice’s mysterious history are all the most enjoyable when walking through the real places late at night.
All but one of these spots can be visited so you can touch the same stones the characters in our stories would have walked on themselves. While not all these stories are directly connected to ghosts, they all have a macabre theme and you never know when you might be the first to see a spectre from one of these famous tales.
We start our tour at the northernmost point on the island, at the Riva de Biasio Vaporetto dock. This was the spot in the 15th were the butcher of Biasio plied his trade. The butcher was known for his delicious sausages, that he served in the inn he ran on the canal. He was known all over Venice for his superior tasting sausages. Until one day, a woman discovered a small piece of a human finger inside, including the fingernail!
When the police raided the butcher shop they found pieces and bones of various children he had killed, and we can assume, turned into food for his restaurant. Biasio was beheaded in St. Mark’s Square and his house was torn down because the memories of what he had done haunted the residents of the area. Residences have been known to hear the voices of crying children late into the night echoing along the canal.
Before the construction of the San Michele Cemetery, rich aristocrats were buried inside churches in burial tombs. But the cost of being buried inside a church was high and only for the very upper crust of Venetian society. Middle-class people “rented” their final resting place. These people could not afford a single tomb of their own so instead, groups of people would be buried together in a private chapel for a certain period of time. Once their time was up, their living family members could either pay up for another few years or have the corpses removed. There was even a school dedicated to the management of burials in Venice called the Scuola della Buona Morte, or School of the Good Death.
The poorest of Venetian society were buried in open-air cemeteries or mass graves. The street Campo dei Morti translates into the Street of the Dead. This was where once you’d find one of the largest open-air grave sights in Venice. This graveyard would have been overflowing when the plague first came to the city. And you can only imagine the smell! But in addition to the smell, it was literally unsafe as diseases would spread from the dead bodies to anyone living close by. So in the 19th century, an edict was formed that these cemeteries would be moved off the island for sanity purposes. But walking on these streets today still feels like you’re walking over someone’s grave.
The best place to see the Palazzo Mastelli is opposite the house on the other side of the canal (as marked on the map). The most curious part of this building is the carving on the lower right corner which depicts a man in a turban standing beside a large camel. The legend says that this man in the bas-relief is actually the petrified former owner of the palace. The owners were rich silk merchants who made their money by selling low-quality fabrics at high prices to unsuspecting Venetians. When they pulled this scam on an old widow, she was furious.
She cursed the money she used to buy the fabric so that whenever the merchants touched it they would turn to stone. Look closely on the faces of both the merchant and the camel and see if in the moonlight of the night, you can hear them screaming for help!
The Casino degli Spiriti (the House of the Spirits) is made up of a vast complex of buildings consisting also of the Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo. In the 16th century when this building was first constructed it began its life as an intellectual meeting place. Philosophers and artists would come from far and wide to meet here. People like Tintoretto, Veronese and Titian were popular attendees. But over the years the palace was abandoned although some locals say that it wasn’t really abandoned after all. They claimed that cults began using the large annex in the Palazzo for dark rituals late at night. After this point in history, it seemed like the spot was cursed.
Strange noises were heard at night, and voice carried across the canal. Pietro Luzzo da Feltre, a painter of little repute, bought the land since it was cheap. The painter was a romantic soul and was madly in love with one of his models. When she turned down his advances, the love stuck painter threw himself off the building and died in the water. A few days later the painter’s ghost appeared in one of the windows and is still frequently seen wandering the halls. The palazzo was later used as a hospital for plague patients where hundreds of people died. Their bodies were given autopsies here as well and only rowed out to the nearby San Michele Cemetery when they had been torn apart by doctors.
In the 1920s new owners discovered four bodies inside the building, all of which were missing their heads and right hands. This quickly put them off the property. The last gruesome story from the building’s history comes in 1940 when a rich woman was killed, dismembered and placed in a trunk which was later submerged into the lagoon. The trunk was discovered nearby by some local fisherman who had already known about all the other mysterious events which had occurred near the palazzo. All these spooky incidents have meant that no fisherman will even fish near the Casin degli Spiriti for fear of being its next victim.
The Campo de L’Abazia is where you might find one of the most theatrical ghosts of the city. On May 13th, 1437 there was a terrible fire that spread across the neighbourhood. Families were trying to get these children out of the fire. When Bartolomeo Zenni was asked by his neighbours for help he refused them in order to instead save his jewels and gold. But this cruel action condemned his soul for life. Today, if you see an old man, with a large sack on his back, in the square begging for money – don’t speak to him. People have been known to approach the man, only to have him turn into a burning skeleton in front of their eyes!
Standing on the main island looking out at the San Michele opposite, see if you can spot a floating casket on the water, lit by four candles. This is thought to be the ghost of a little girl who died in the water in 1904. On a particularly foggy night, a Vaporetto captain and two gondolas set out from the main island to Burano and Murano respectively. Due to the thick fog, the Vaporetto crashed into the gondolas sending almost all the passengers into the water. Despite their best attempts, four women died that night but one little girl remained lost at sea. The floating casket with candles is said to be the ghost of the little girl who was never found and never given a proper burial.
Most obviously haunted places in Venice is the San Michele Cemetery. The new cemetery was established in 1807, by filling the canals of the then two separate islands (San Michele and San Cristoforo), to create one larger one. Bodies were carried to the island on special funeral gondolas. The island was formerly used for prisoners, which in itself imbues the island with a storied past. The cemeteries are guarded by large cypress trees whose branches ache and moan with the wind. Thousands of people are now buried on the island, under some of the most lavish monuments you’ll find anywhere in the world. The cemetery is divided into different sections; Catholic, Greco/Orthodox, Protestant, Victims of War, and gondoliers.
Most of the graves here were only filled by one individual for 10-12 years, after which their bones were moves to mausoleums or dumped in the communal ossuary. Legend has it that one November 1st, the dead leave the island and make their way back to Venice to visit their old homes. Venetians think it’s bad luck to look out the window, for fear of seeing the dead, on this day. On November 2nd, all souls day, the living return to the island to pay respects to their loved ones and often are seeing bringing Fave dei Morte (“Beans of the Dead”) for their relatives. If you’d like to travel to the cemetery you can take the No. 4.1 or 4.2 motoscafo from the Fondamenta Nove. The ride across the water to the island onlu takes six minutes.
Here in Campiello del Remer square, you might catch sight of a tormented jealous lover. In the 16th century, a nobleman named Loredan fell in love and married the niece of the Doge. But wracked with jealously, accused her of adultery. She repeatedly denied it but unable to free himself from his jealous rage, beheaded her. Not wanting a nobleman’s blood on his hands, the Doge told the Loredan to go to the Pope and ask for forgiveness. But one caveat, he had to bring his wife’s beheaded head with him on the long journey. Loredan obeyed but the pope would not see him. He carried his dead wife’s decaying head back to Venice and, now wracked with madness, threw himself into the canal near the Campiello Remer. He is still seen today walking around the Campiello with his dead wife’s head in his hands.
The Malibran Theater was once, the old home of Marco Polo. Marco Polo, when travelling in China, met the daughter of a great emperor and fall in love. He married her and brought her back to Venice with him. But she never felt at home in Venice. Marco Polo’s sisters didn’t like her either, and we thought to be very jealous of the affection that Marco paid on her. One day, Marco was captured in battle by the Genoese and instead of telling her that he had been captured, Marco’s sisters told his wife he had died. Feeling more alone than ever, she lit her clothes on fire and threw herself into the canal where she is thought to have died.
Today, people claimed that you can still see her white figure floating in the air and if you listen closely hear the faint sound of Eastern music playing in the wind. While there is seemingly little truth to this story, when the theatre was doing some excavations, they discovered the body of an Asian woman buried in the foundations of the building. Found along with her with a tiara and an imperial coat, so no doubt this was Marco’s princess.
In front of the Basilica of S.S. Giovanni, there is said to be a ghost that haunts the court. The ghost is often seen begging for alms. This is “Bell Ringer” of St Marks Square. The bell ringer was just that, a bell ringer who was once in charge of the huge bells inside St. Mark’s Campanile. Bell ringers back then didn’t make much money, so when an old Venetian scientist approached the boy and offered him a large sum in exchange for his skeleton, the boy jumped at the offer.
The scientist wanted the boy’s skeleton to perform experiments on after his death. Not thinking anything of this, the boy accepted and was handed over the large sum of money. He immediately went about spending it, mostly on alcohol, and eventually drank himself into a very early grave. Perhaps the scientist knew a thing or two and crafted the entire scheme. The scientist took what he had paid for and the skeleton is still on display in Venice’s Natural History Museum to this day. But it is said that the skeletons leave the museum every night, and comes here to beg for money, in the hopes of being able to buy his skeleton back and escape the mortal world.
Belltowers across Europe in the Medieval era were the only way that people know what was going on in the city. The bells tolled for the start and end of the workday. They tolled to mark danger incoming into the city. Of even just to mark a celebration. But whatever they were used for, they had great influence over the people of the city. Therefore many of the belltowers in Venice have a carving sculpted on the door to the tower. These carvings were often grotesque as they were used to “ward off the Devil” to ensure he didn’t enter to ring the bells and cause chaos in the city.
The carving on the church of Santa Maria Formosa‘s belltower is one of the best examples of this. This carving is said to howl out at night when he senses the devil is near. Others say that the cries are something much darker. And that the carving above the door is actually a demon trapped in stone. See if the face’s eyes follow you as you pass.
The church of San Francesco della Vigna is thought to be haunted by not one but a group of ghosts. Years ago, a man was out late walking home, when darkness fell early than the man expected. This was long before the invention of street lamps. As he neared the church, he saw a few glimmers of light in the distance and thought he might ask if the group had a light to spare. When he got closer he saw there was a group of men, around the graveyard of the church, all holding candles. One of the men turned to face him and offered him his candle. The man took it enthusiastically and walked the rest of the way home.
In the morning he was horrified to see that the light he was using the night before wasn’t a candle but a shrivelled hand! He returned the next night, as he felt keeping the hand would have been grave robbery, and therefore a sun. He saw the group of men around the graveyard once more. They all carried candles in their hand. All but one. He passed the hand back to the ghost, who smiled. The man ran off into the night, never being able to forget what he saw. The graveyard is now gone but perhaps the ghosts still frequent the churchyard!
On the far edge of the island of Venice lies the Campo San Piero de Castro. Lurking in the shadows is said to be the ghost of a young bride. This is Tosca. Tosca was a poor young girl who was promised to a rich nobleman in order to further her family’s name. But she was already in love with someone else. A young hunter. Before she had to marry the nobleman, she escaped with the hunter. But before they could get away, the nobleman found them. He killed the hunter and cut of Tosca’s ring finger so should never marry anyone! Riddled with loss over her beloved she killed herself. Today her ghost searches endlessly for her wedding ring so she can marry her beloved – even in death.
Standing in the Viale Giuseppe Garibaldi is a large statue of Garibaldi. Giuseppe Garibaldi was the hero of Italian Unification. But standing behind Garibaldi’s grande statue is another figure, Giuseppe Zolli. Giuseppe Zolli was a young red shirt soldier. The solider was such a fan of Garibaldi that he swore an oath to protect him, even after death. The original statue of Garibaldi was designed as a solo piece, and here he stood, alone. But after some time, people began to report seeing a young ghost in a red shirt wandering the gardens asking for Garibaldi. Seeing as this ghost was clearly Giuseppe Zolli and did not plan on leaving Garibaldi alone, designers made him his own statue behind Garibaldi. Since then no one has spotted the ghost but there is most definitely some spirited energy going on here.
If you walk under the archway of the Sottoportego dei Preti and look on the opposite side, you’ll find a red heart carved into the brick. Legend has it that once upon a time a poor Venetian fisherman named Orio, was out fishing one night when a Melusine appeared near his boat. A Melusine is a Venetian mermaid, one who has two tails. Orio feels in love with her. And she with him.
They got married and even had three children, but the Melusine died birthing their last child. But unlike humans, Melusine’s turn into snakes when they die. She would return to Orio and the children every day as a snake to clean the house and take care of the children. But Orio didn’t know about this, and when he finally saw the snake, he killed it. Only then did he realize the snake was his wife. Broken-hearted he carved away at the wall in madness to remind future people his sad love story. Today it is thought that if you touch the heart you will find luck in love in the next year.
The Calle della Morte translates in Italian literally into the Alley of Death. The alley was the most popular spot for people to be killed but in a rather strange way. When noblemen were condemned to death by the Venetian Council, the council avoided telling them right away. They feared they would escape before the sentence. So they would trick them to coming to this street where they would be killed. The Calle de Morte is extremely narrow and there would be no escape once someone was after you here. You’d think after the first few times someone would have caught on but I guess news didn’t travel as fast back in medieval times.
If you listen closely when you stand near the Church of Sant’Antonin, see if you can hear the stomping of huge footsteps. These are the ghostly footsteps of an elephant who once went rampaging through the city. In 1819, a travelling circus came to Venice. Animals in this circus where extremely abused and finally the elephant had had enough and escaped its shackles. It ran through the city, running through Riva Degli Schiavoni, destroying houses, staircases and doorways as it went.
It finally ended up here, where its foot got stuck in a tombstone allowing the Venetians chasing it to finally catch and shoot it. But killing it outright wasn’t enough for them. They brought it to St. Mark’s Square and executed the animal with a cannon! The poor elephant was no doubt just really scared and didn’t deserve this horrific end. So, its ghost still tries to take out its revenge on people today, even in death!
The Church of San Zaccaria has a very haunting past. In 1105 there was a great fire in the church. All the nuns living in the convent tried to escape the fire and fled into the crypt for safety. Unfortunately, 100 nuns perished in the fire. They were buried beneath the church, quite haphazardly. Years late, in a horrific flood in the 15th century, the crypts were flooded with water. Suddenly thousands of bones floated to the surface, scaring the daylights out of the priests who hadn’t known they were there. When you visit the church, especially on a rainy night, see if you can hear the sounds of bones swaying in the water underneath.
But this is not the end of the dark tales haunting his building. This church is where two Doge’s of Venice were murdered. The church was even once better as the La Chiesa Degli Omicidi – The Church of Murders. Pietro Tradonico was murdered on September 13th, 864. He was attacked by a group of malcontents as he was leaving after confession. After he died, they buried him in this very church. I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to be buried right where I was murdered.
But, looks like it was a Venetian trend! Because later in May 1172, Vitale II Michiel was also murdered here. Michiel was accused of both the destruction of the Venetian fleet at the hands of Byzantine rebels as well as bringing the plague back into the city. Not a great reputation. An angry mob gathered outside the palace and he tried to escape them by running to the convent here at Zaccaria. But stabbed to death by one of the mob before he arrived. Eight doges in total are buried here, all of whom met a violent end. Probably should have stopped burying them here…seems like the church is well, cursed. Probably by all those nuns who burned to death.
Now we come into the Piazzetta San Marco. This time of night the square is so much quieter than when visitors flood it during the day. Standing tall in the square are the two pillars of San Marco and San Todaro. But before you take another step, be warned, it is said that if you stand in between the two columns you’ll be cursed.
The two columns were brought here from Constantinople, along with a third. But the ship carrying them sank to the bottom of the sea, and the third column was lost forever. The area between the two columns was used as the site for public executions for many years embuing the columns with dark memories and no doubt cursing the stones below with the blood of the fallen.
Another way people were punished and sometimes killed in Venice was to hang from the top of the St. Mark’s Campanile locked in a cage. This was called ‘supplizio Della cheba’, or the suspended cage. This method of torture was mainly used prior to the 15th century. The person convicted was almost always a member of the clergy. Often the crimes could be anything from sodomy, murder, forgery to blasphemy. The length of time you were in the cage, depending on the severity of the crime. When in the cage, the criminal could feed himself through a string with which he could drag bread and drinking water. Often this was almost impossible and the person would die. A haunting image of a less than beautiful St. Marks square.
Rio Tera’ degli Assassini translates into the Assassins’ Street and the adjacent Assassins’ Bridge. This bridge connected the more upscale neighbourhood of San Marco to the red light district where you could find all the best brothels. The street is very narrow and often was extremely dark. The most famous story from this street was in 1507. A nobleman was murdered here and his body was discovered by a local baker named Piero Tasca. The baker saw the murder weapon on the ground nearby. Seeing its silver blade and gem-encrusted hilt he grabbed the dagger in the hope of trading it for some money to feed his family. But, as he went to grab it, the authorities arrived and arrested him for the murder.
They promptly sentenced him to death, despite his objections. A few weeks later, the real murderer confessed. From that day forward the saying recorded del polo fornareto (Remember the poor baker) was uttered in council meetings for the Republic of Venice to think twice before making a grave mistake in execution sentencing. Some people have been heard to smell freshly baked bread floating through the air here, even in the dead of night.
The Palazzo Grassi is home to a billionaire and contemporary art collector Francois Pinault. When the Palazzo was being restored in the 80s, a night watchman was walking through the building when he heard a young girl’s voice. The voice screamed, “stop!“. The nightwatchman froze in place and turned on his light. He looked about but couldn’t see anything. He was moving more slowly now in order to keep an eye out for the person whose voice he heard when suddenly he noticed a huge hole in the floor! This voice had been warning him to stop, before falling to his death.
After asking around, the owners discovered that years ago a young girl had been thrown off the balcony into the courtyard below. She had been trapped in an abusive living situation and unfortunately died at the hands of her abuser. It seems that she now tries to protect others around the palace, from any kind of suffering.
This picturesque house looks like the most idyllic little spot in Venice but Palazzo Dario is a house of two faces. The intricate Istrian stone, richly decorated with marble and circular medallions communicates nothing but beauty. But it’s dark side is really pretty dark. The house also goes by the name the ‘house that kills’ and is thought to be the most haunted house in all of Venice. Almost anywho who has lived here or owned the building has been murdered, died by suicide, been in a terrible accident or went bankrupt, so…keep your distance!
In the 15th century, the house was built and the Dario family moved in. Almost immediately, their daughter committed suicide. Her husband went bankrupt and their son perished in a fight. Rumours are that the house was built on top of an old Templar cemetery who weren’t so happy with a big house being dumped on top of their graves. Outside the house is a plaque that is engraved with the name of the first owner, “Giovanni Dario to the Genius of the City“. But smart sleuths have discovered that in Italians, you can make an anagram out of these letters to make it spell, Sub ruina insidiosa genero (I bring treacherous ruins to those who live under this roof). Pretty spooky right?
The Punta Della Dogana is located at the end of the island of Dorsoduro and gives visitors a beautiful view of the Grand Canal. While enjoying the view, don’t blink twice if you happen to see something larger than life slithering around in the water. Legend has it that inside these dark waters lives a large sea serpent, like that loch ness monster. If it happens to be a moonless night you might be in luck since the monster favours nights when its darkest. Fishermen swear they have seen the creature although no evidence of its existence has been proven yet. Maybe you’ll be the first to get it on camera!
We can’t talk about the hauntings of Venice without discussing Poveglia. But unfortunately, the island is pretty inaccessible to visitors. There are reports that you can hire a private boat which will take you there for about 180 euros, and I did manage to find a company which offers tours there for 350 euros! But since the island is officially off-limits to anyone, you are taking a risk by going there yourself. But standing on edge of Dorsoduro, look out into the black waters and imagine for yourself the island of death which is also known as Poveglia.
Poveglia isn’t just one of the most haunted places in Venice, but one of the most haunted places in Europe! Poveglia was located at the edge of the lagoon and therefore a good spot to quarantine people coming into the lagoon by ship in the 16th century. During this time the plague was ravaging Europe and the Magistrato alla Sanità (Public Health Office) were trying their best to ensure it didn’t enter the cramped city of Venice, where it would spread like wildfire. In 1793 the first of two ships were placed into temporary confinement on the island when the plague was discovered on their ship. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep it contained here and instead the island was turned into a giant burial ground.
Over 160,000 plague victims were brought to the island during this period. Bodies were simply piled one on top of the other and even those who were sent here to bury the dead, often met their end here before they finished the job. Once the pile was too large for any new bodies, the whole pile would be burned to ash. It is said that there isn’t an inch of soil on Poveglia that isn’t mixed with the ashes of thousands of bodies.
After lying almost abandoned for years, in 1922 a psychiatric hospital was built on the island. The hospital was run by a cruel doctor who performed horrific experiments on his patients, who he deemed less than human. Located so far away from the prying eyes of the city, the doctor felt like he could do whatever he wanted here. It didn’t even take much to be sent to the asylum here in Poveglia. Understanding the treatment for mental illness was just in its infancy and it seemed like anyone who was even the slightest bit less than normal was sent here to the asylum.
The doctor was thought to have been driven mad, perhaps by the plague ghosts of the island, who were trying to protect the innocent souls he was abusing. The doctor attempted to commit suicide by jumping off the hospital belltower. But, almost in a twist of fate, he survives the jump. His injuries were traumatic and eventually, he would succumb to his wounds, but not without a tremendous amount of suffering. Karma. The hospital closed in 1968 and since then the island has been off-limits for anyone. The buildings have been left to the elements and are literally falling apart. People have heard noises coming from the abandoned island late at night. Is that the sound of the buildings falling down, or ghosts crying out in the night? I’ll let you decide.
For those of you brave enough to have made it through the entire tour, kudos to you! You’re truly a superior ghost hunter! Let me know in the comment what your favourite story from the tour was or if you were lucky enough to spot a spectre!
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My husband and I used your map to visit and learn about haunted Venice, and we had a lot of fun! Thank you!