All you horror aficionados out there, you can soon bid for Poveglia, an island near Venice, Italy, which has been deemed the "most haunted" place on the surface of the Earth.
The Italian government is selling off the notorious isle to pay off public debts and comply with the European Union's budgetary guidelines. The island will go under the hammer next month.
Residents and travelers both were shocked by the news, according to Liberty Voice.
Poveglia, just a 10-minute-boat-ride away from Venice's Saint Marco Square, has a sordid history. The island was used as a dumping ground in the 18th century, where people affected by the plague were left to die. People believe that the ghosts of the victims still haunt the island.
Despite its paranormal reputation, a hospital for the elderly opened in 1922. A doctor reportedly conducted lobotomy experiments on the patients there, but within a span of a few years, threw himself from a tower after claiming he was driven mad by ghosts.
The island has since remained deserted.
An estimated 50 percent of the island's soil is comprised of the dead's ash. A local saying in Italy goes, "When an evil man dies, he wakes up in Poveglia." Also called the "Island of madness" and sometimes just "hell," several eerie incidents have been reported there.
According to TIME, an American TV presenter for the Travel Channel series "Ghost Adventures" was briefly possessed after he tried to enter the abandoned hospital. The island is currently closed to visitors.
The Italian government claims that the island has significant commercial potential, noting that private entities can demolish the hospital and use the space to convert it into a luxury hotel.
The haunted island is not the only property the government is doing away with. The state has listed four others, including a 15th century castle in Gradisca d'Isonzo, which was built to defend against the Turks. They hope to unload a total of 148 properties in 2014, reports The Telegraph.
Intrigued by the lore surrounding the island, author Ransom Riggs visited Poveglia in 2010, speaking fondly of it upon his return.
"It was strange: if any place in the world was haunted, this place was. But regardless of its history as a burial ground and quarantine hospital and insane asylum and lord knows what else, the weather and the rampant greenery made it feel like a happy place, somewhere I wouldn't mind being stuck for a few weeks, if it were the 16th century and I was suspected of carrying the plague," Riggs wrote.
See some pictures of the island here.
