Why Gaiola Island Is Lonely ?

The Gaiola island in the gulf of Naples is one of those incredibly beautiful places surrounded by an equally incredible aura of mystery, fear and fascination. Maybe the two go hand in hand or perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but what is for sure is that every person who has stepped on the soil of this tiny island has either died or run into catastrophic misfortunes…

                    Location of Gaiola Island

First of all, let’s be precise: the Gaiola island is actually made of two minuscule islands linked by what today looks like a very frail and dangerous bridge. The Gaiola faces the Posillipo hill and is located at the center of the Gaiola Underwater Park, a Marine Protected Area established in 2002. The history of Gaiola, though, goes way back. According to a legend, the Latin poet Vergil (who, as we have seen talking about the Egg Castle, was regarded as a sorcerer and alchemist in Naples) used to practice his obscure arts in this area. For this reason, many believed that the water of Gaiola had been polluted by his magic rites and that a curse befell upon anybody venturing in the area.

The villa, and the whole island, was owned by many different people during the 20th century, all of which suffered various misfortunes, building up the notorious reputation of the island. In 1911, Captain Gaspare Albenga was navigating his ship around the island and obviously was making a tour, because was seriously interested in buying it. But sadly, during the exploring, he hit some rocks and subsequently drowned. According to some versions of the story, his body and his ship were never found. In the 1920s, the island’s Swiss owner, Hans Braun, was killed and found dead wrapped in a rug, and his wife died drowning in the sea while swimming offshore. The following owner, Otto Grunback, died of a heart attack while visiting the villa. Next owner, writer and pharmaceutical industrialist Maurice-Yves Sandoz, was locked up in an asylum in Switzerland and committed suicide there in 1958.

Gaiola Island was then owned by Baron Karl Paul Langheim, a German industrialist whose company also went bankrupt. He sold the island to Gianni Agnelli, owner of Fiat (the most important automobile manufacturer in Italy), who suffered from many tragic deaths in his family. Another owner of Gaiola Island was American industrialist Jean Paul Getty. He had his fair share of misfortunes, with the suicide of his oldest son, the death of his youngest son, and the kidnapping of a grandson by an organized crime group.

The last owner was Gianpasquale Grappone, who ended up in prison and his wife died in a car accident. In 1978, Gaiola Island became a property of the government, along with the nearby marine reserve, the Underwater Park of Gaiola (Parco Sommerso di Gaiola). The island has been uninhabited for 40 years now, but the curse apparently hasn’t stopped; in 2009, the owners of a villa opposite the island were murdered.

Know Before You Go

You can drive to the coastline near Gaiola Island, which is close enough to the shore to be able to see from there. You can also take a boat out to get closer, or scuba dive and snorkel at the nearby Gaiola Underwater Park, a marine protected area.