Published
Video length: 2 min
Italy: Tourists steal stones from Pompeii and return them for fear of curse
Many visitors to the archeology site of Pompeii, in Italy, recover small stones. Some of them, convinced of being victims of a curse, prefer to return them to the management of the site. – (France 2)
Many visitors to the archeology site of Pompeii, in Italy, recover small stones. Some of them, convinced of being victims of a curse, prefer to return them to the management of the site.
For several years, Pompeii (Italy) has been the scene of a strange phenomenon. Management is receiving more and more apology tickets with small stones, or fragments of mosaics, from visitors who have stolen them from the archaeological site. Everyone is convinced that they are victims of a curse. For example, a young woman is convinced that she fell ill because of these stones.
“Since we have these stones, we have been unlucky”
The site can be visited under the open sky, and tourists are tempted to help themselves directly in the ruins. Around a hundred letters have been sent over the last forty years. “We don’t know if it’s the curse or a coincidence, but since we got these stones, we’re unlucky”, we can read in a letter. The writer Antonio Cangiano even wrote a book about this famous evil eye of Pompeii. These pieces of stone are sometimes also the subject of organized trafficking.
