Poveglia is a few miles from the tourist centre of Venice (Image: Angelo Meneghini)

       Just miles from a busy tourist spot in Italy is an island completely "absent of life" known as "Plague Island" or "island of death".

       Poveglia Island is about four miles from the heart of Venice which hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year.

       The island once acted as a dumping ground for diseased Italians during the bubonic plague in the 1300s. But now the walls of the ancient buildings on the island are covered in vines and stained with graffiti left by morbidly curious travellers – known as dark tourists.

       Recently, the hugely popular YouTube channel Yes Theory visited the island – and shared their "nauseous" experience.

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       160,000 plague victims were sent to Poveglia (Image: Angelo Meneghini)

       The brutal Chernobyl-esque look created by overgrowth as well as the history of the island is likely to be terrifying to ordinary tourists.

       Even Yes Theory – a group who have visited some of the most desolate and dangerous places in the world – was creeped out by their experience on the island.

       Poveglia Island hosted 160,000 infected people who lived their final days on the island.

       But it wasn’t just the plague that earned the island its moniker but the construction of a mental hospital in 1922.

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       Local sources tell of a legend of a doctor who tortured and killed many of his patients by throwing them off its bell tower.

       The hospital was shut in 1968 and its ruins have been collecting greenery since.

       One of the Yes Theory group said: "I am so creeped out.

       "The fact that it's so quiet makes it even creepier. You really pay attention to the wind and like every little sound, and you just wonder, like every little bump in nature, you wonder, is that like, is that a grave?"

       He added: "The absence of life that we experienced on this island and what remains of it left us feeling hollow, heavy, and baffled that places like this even exist."

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       Nearby Lazzaretto Nuovo was also home to a plague hospital (Image: Therunnerup)

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       Venice is home to several islands with horrifying reputations similar to Plague Island.

       Lazzaretto Nuovo is another haunting island where the mythical “vampire of Venice” was rumoured to operate. Mass graves have been found on the island, including a woman with a brick jammed in her mouth – thought to be the so-called vampire’s favoured method of killing.

       Legend says the vampire was a Shroud Eater, a vampire that is said not to kill with by biting necks.

       According to Atlas Obscura, the explanation for the brick is probably just because the cemetery where she was found was reused many years later.

       A plague hospital was built on the island in 1423 amid the plague.

       READ MORE ‘Sweetest’ dog becomes friends with abandoned baby ducklings

       Venice is home to several islands with horrifying reputations similar to Plague Island.

       Lazzaretto Nuovo is another haunting island where the mythical “vampire of Venice” was rumoured to operate. Mass graves have been found on the island, including a woman with a brick jammed in her mouth – thought to be the so-called vampire’s favoured method of killing.

       Legend says the vampire was a Shroud Eater, a vampire that is said not to kill with by biting necks.

       According to Atlas Obscura, the explanation for the brick is probably just because the cemetery where she was found was reused many years later.

       A plague hospital was built on the island in 1423 amid the plague.

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