A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

This sturdy, circular stronghold served as one of the forts that protected the Venetian Lagoon.

Stare out over the lagoon and beyond from this 10th-century campanile on the island where the city of Venice began.

Originally a leper colony, the island is now an Armenian monastery that's home to an incredible manuscript library and eclectic museum.

The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

This abandoned island off the Venetian coast has been a radical monastery, a political prison, and a secret Nazi base.

Hanging within this medieval church are the bones of a beast allegedly slain by a fourth-century saint.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

The plague quarantine island home to the alleged "Vampire of Venice."

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

As can be expected from a centuries old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.