Plague in Italian Style

The history of several famous quarantine islands

Since ancient times, isolating the sick has been considered the most effective method for fighting the spread of epidemics. It became common practice to ship people to special islands when they became ill, but few ever came back alive. 

Throughout world history, humanity has repeatedly faced outbreaks of terrible diseases that sometimes took the lives of tens of millions of people. From very early on, it was clear that the most effective way of combating epidemics was isolation of those affected, which was first mentioned in the Book by Leviticus.

The culture owes the word “quarantine” to the plague pandemic that raged in Europe in the 19th century. At that time in Venice, the main commercial port of the Old World, all incoming ships had to anchor outside the harbor for 40 days, after which the crew was examined by a special commission. If no disease was detected, the ship could moor to the shore. These forty days, called “quaranta giorni” in Italian, have gone down in medical history as “quarantine”.

The sailors with the symptoms of plague suffered an unfortunate fate: the doctors were afraid to contract the disease, refused to treat them, and sent the wretched to the island of Lazareto, located 4 km from Venice, which had a hospital and barracks built for them. the monks did their best to take care of the diseased. the dead were buried there as well, and according to the latest excavations, there were over a thousand and a half of them. Several centuries later, the station was first turned into a military garrison, and then into a dog shelter. Since 1960s, the island has been uninhabited.

Venetians and guests of the city, who were suspected of having plague, were taken to the island of Poveglia, which had an area of only one square kilometer. Apart from hospitals, it had a bell tower, buildings, and warehouses with food and medicine. the most terrible thing was that the whole families, including members that were not even sick, were often sent there due to the wrong diagnosis. the mortality rate there was almost 100%. the living were burned alive together with the dead, if they showed signs of the disease. Some reports indicate that the plague killed about 160 thousand people on the island back then.

When the pandemic was abated, Poveglia, or, as the Venetians called it, the Hell’s Gate Island was supposed to be inhabited. However, the bad reputation of this place, where every inch of the earth was imbued with suffering, spread throughout Italy very quickly. All the attempts of the authorities to make the Poveglia inhabited were of no avail.

Over time, quarantine islands began to appear in other parts of the world. Thus, in 1783 a plague epidemic gripped Kherson. Instant panic broke out, and affluent people were in a hurry to leave the city. Almost all trade relations with it were halted. the doctors were powerless: hundreds of people were dying in agony. Shortly after the epidemic was averted at the cost of indescribable efforts, a Quarantine Island was established between the Dnieper and Koshevaya rivers. It had its customs and quarantine house for all those arriving in the city. One of them was Francisco de Miranda, the Venezuelan revolutionary who spent a month there in 1786. He described his experience in a book about his journey through the Russian Empire.

Unlike its European “brothers”, the Quarantine Island, which is partly swampy, is now inhabited, and it is home to residential areas and industrial enterprises.

Irina Sheykhetova