Charming Italy hides a secret that has fired the imagination for centuries and brought disaster to its inhabitants. We are talking about Gaioli – a tiny island off the coast of Naples, where there is one residence.
Once upon a time, it was the favourite place of the rich, but now it is empty. People who went there disappeared without a trace, drowned or were murder victims.
Gaiola, located in the Bay of Naples, is one of the smallest local islands that you can freely swim to. In ancient times, there was supposed to be a temple there, and in the 19th century, a mysterious hermit settled there. This began a series of strange, unexplained events.
Gaiola – a mysterious island full of dark secrets
There is only one building on the island – it is a dilapidated villa that was abandoned years ago. However, before it was built, there was a “Wizard” living on Gaiola – a mysterious hermit who lived on the alms of fishermen. One day, a man disappeared without a trace, and the inhabitants of Campania began to believe that he had cursed the island.
Gaiola was taken over in 1911 by Captain Gaspare Albenga. Just after becoming interested in the place, the man crashed his ship into the rocks and drowned.
In the 1920s, Hans Braun from Switzerland settled in Gaiola and was murdered shortly after settling there. His body was wrapped in a carpet and it was never explained what happened to the man. Soon his wife also died, drowning on the shores of Gaioli.
There was a fate hanging over the owners
In later years, almost every villa owner on the island ended tragically. Otto Grunback from Germany had a heart attack there and died, and Maurice-Yves Sandoz lost his mind after taking over Gaioli and committed suicide.
The island in the Bay of Naples was later taken over by Karl Paul Langheim, a German industrialist who owned a steel mill and steelworks. He had considerable wealth and a thriving business, but two years after purchasing the villa, he went completely bankrupt. The property was then taken over by billionaire Paul Getty, whose grandson was kidnapped shortly thereafter and two of his sons died.
Even Gianni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat, became interested in Gaiola. However, the man did not lose his life, but his loved ones did. The Italian’s son committed suicide, and his nephew, to whom Agnelli wanted to pass the company, died of cancer. The last owner of the island was Gianspasquale Grappone, and his stay there resulted in imprisonment – the man was arrested due to debts.
In 1996, the Campanian authorities handed over the island to the Marvevivo association, and a museum of marine resources was to be established on Gaioli. It was not created because the organisation went bankrupt. The last tragic event was the murder of Franco Ambrosio and his wife in 2009. The couple died in a villa opposite Gaioli.
Currently, the building on the island is abandoned and the area itself is a protected area managed by the Campanian authorities. An underwater park has been created around Gaiola, which offers diving trips to tourists.
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