Original subtitles

Narrator: In Cyprus, vestiges of opulence in an active no man's land.

This ill-fated coup sealed the fate of this summer paradise.

Two mouldering bastions on america's Gulf coast with a hopeful tale...

These structures saw slavery at its worst.

But ended up becoming constructions of freedom.

..An ancient refuge in Georgia made to fend off a mighty enemy...

It's no surprise that the Georgians wanted to hide,

the mongols were ruthless and incredibly violent.

..And a frozen shell in the Balkans built on a burning passion.

The whole story had began with one man's pursuit of love.

Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds.

Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

In eastern Cyprus is an entire neighbourhood

closed to the world for decades.

Famagusta is a lovely city

but as you move along the coast, suddenly, you get wire,

you get signs telling you not to go any further,

you feel like you're in a warzone.

Inside this forbidden zone is a mass of crumbling concrete.

Several high-rise buildings face the sea

several high-rise buildings face the sea

with these spectacular seafront views, they must have been hotels.

Behind them, you have these extensive neighbourhoods

of beautiful middle-class homes, all empty.

Weeds now overrun the deserted streets,

nature is starting to reclaim this town.

There are no obvious signs of war damage,

so what happened to this former Jewel of the mediterranean?

One time, its streets were packed with tourists

but one summer they were gone and they never came back again.

Two checkpoints are still existing

and the surrounding is closed by barbed wire,

without accessing from these check-points you cannot enter.

Beyond the barricades lies a Warren of deserted streets

beyond the barricades lies a Warren of deserted streets

and derelict buildings.

Professor ata atun imagined a very different future

when he was a young civil engineer in the early 1970s.

I had to work in this town so there are lots of buildings

which I designed with my brother who was an architect.

We had an office, drawing and calculating the irons

and concrete and everything.

When I come here I always look at it with pleasure,

with the memories of the past.

These are the petrified relics of varosha,

the closed-off southern quarter of famagusta city.

Varosha was this kind of a sleepy backwater,

a fishing village and because of the tourist potential

of that stretch of coastline,

in the 1960s it starts getting developed as a beach resort.

In the 1960s it starts getting developed as a beach resort.

With its modern investment with its massive first great hotels

it started to look a lot like Miami beach.

This is where all the a-listers went, people like brigette bardot,

Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor.

A shopping district

lined with designer boutiques catered to the rich and famous.

The luxury goods were all sold in these shops of this town.

There are lots of shops, very nice places

which were selling products of the well-known companies.

So, varosha became not just a resort,

varosha became the resort.

Yet, beneath the glamour, here,

mistrust had been festering across the island for centuries.

Cyprus is in a key strategic location,

straddling the eastern and western mediterranean

so it's seen a series of conquerors and occupiers

including the romans, the persians,

the Egyptians and the Muslim kingdoms.

In the middle ages, Cyprus was a Greek island

but a sizeable ethnically Turkish population

comes to Cyprus, as well,

and there is off again on again

tension between the Turkish and Greek communities in Cyprus.

Then came a moment that threatened

to bring these tensions to a brutal climax.

For a long time, Cyprus was effectively a British colony

and in 1960 Cyprus gets its independence

and there is hope and there is promise and there is joy

and there is hope and there is promise and there is joy

and then it all goes a little bit dark.

A political partnership between

the ethnic Greek and Turkish communities was established.

But the island's first president,

Greek Cypriot archbishop makarios wanted Cyprus unified with Greece.

In 1963 he proposed controversial changes in the constitution

that would bring an end to the power-sharing arrangements.

The Turkish Cypriots naturally opposed unification with Greece.

A fuse had been lit and both sides exploded.

This ignited a killing spree in the capital of Nicosia.

Armed factions roamed the streets

and homes and businesses were looted and set ablaze.

In 1964 the United Nations stepped in

and separated the capitals, Greek and Turkish communities.

In the aftermath of this bloody clash,

a buffer zone was created known as the green line

and this was patrolled by UN troops.

Like Berlin just a few years earlier, Nicosia became a divided city.

Varosha survived the conflict

but the stage had been set for its downfall.

The buffer zone created the illusion of peace on the surface

but in July, 1974 when varosha would have been packed with tourists,

tensions came to a head.

Frustrated that Cyprus was still divided,

the government in Athens decided to act.

Greek officers led troops to the presidential palace

and burned it to the ground.

Their target, president makarios, narrowly escaped with his life.

The people who are taking over the Greek-dominated government

are openly saying that they're going to seek unification

with the military government in Greece.

Five days later the Turkish government

responded by initiating operation atilla,

sending in thousands of troops

to protect Turkish Cypriot citizens.

The Turkish armed forces airdrop

1,000 airborne light infantry in to northern Cyprus

and there is an amphibious invasion of about 3,000

and there is an amphibious invasion of about 3,000

and they move into northern Cyprus and eastern Cyprus in force.

This intervention changed the face of Cyprus,

in the course of operation atilla,

you see major population transfers,

about 40,000 Turkish Cypriots living south,

they go north into the Turkish zone.

160,000 Greeks living north, in the Turkish zone, they go south.

Varosha with it's majority Greek Cypriot population

was in the path of the advancing forces.

The tourists, they had no idea what was coming.

People who are vacationing,

who had gone to varosha for a quiet holiday

are suddenly at the epicentre of what might become a hot war.

Tourists and residents fearing a massacre fled.

Professor ata atun was with the Turkish army

when they entered varosha.

My commander ordered me to guide the Turkish army

to the town so I was the first who entered.

It was the ghost town, nobody was living there,

we saw nobody on the town,

it was already evacuated or abandoned.

Residents hoped they might soon

be able to return to their homes and businesses.

But it quickly became clear, this was not going to happen.

To prevent the looting,

the Turkish army just fenced the town,

it was surrounded by barbed wires and entry check-points were erected.

Eventually, an agreement was reached

that would bring an end to the war in Cyprus.

It was a short war, lasting less than a month

it was a short war, lasting less than a month

but its affects are still felt to this day.

Varosha was left cut off within the city of famagusta.

The buffer zone was reinforced

and expanded across the whole length of the island.

And you know how the Turkish Cypriots

stayed with its capital of famagusta to the north of it

and south of the line, you have Nicosia

which, essentially, straddles the green line

but is the Greek capital.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall,

Nicosia, now, stands as the last divided capital in the world.

Today, varosha is slowly starting to open up again

under the supervision of the Turkish Cypriot government.

They've started to clean up some varosha

but many of the buildings are still roped off

and kept out of public view.

And kept out of public view.

However, visionary plans

could help bring this ghost town back to life

and into the 21st century.

It was an interesting attempt by Turkish and Greek Cypriots, now,

working together between communities

to bring it back as an eco-city,

a kind of a blueprint for how to build cities in the future.

So there's some hope that,

that might result in a renaissance in varosha but only time will tell.

On the bayeux west of New Orleans,

two rotting structures cling to the water's edge.

They're laying down low almost like an alligator waiting for its prey.

These thick powerful walls are now starting to shed some bricks.

Inside, it seems they have been left to decay for centuries.

There are dark tunnels, graffiti on the walls,

stalactites hanging down from the ceiling,

you really don't want to be here.

They show the effects of being in a very damp humid environment

and being battered by the elements.

Their architecture leaves no doubt as to their original purpose.

Clearly, these are brick fortifications

which dates them in the early 19th century.

Built to defend against a foreign foe,

these mouldering forts bore witness

to america's most turbulent domestic moments.

It tells us the history of slavery at its worst

and freedom at its hopeful best.

Raymond berthelot is a local historian

who has been coming to these forts for much of his life.

Whenever I was a kid growing up

highway 90, which runs right outside the fort, was the major route

to go towards the beaches in Biloxi, in gulfport

and the Mississippi Gulf coast.

So often times we would take a Sunday drive,

stop at the forts, have a picnic

before carrying on to spend the day at the beaches.

Rarely a destination in themselves, today,

forts, pike and macomb once worked in tandem

to control a very different highway.

These two coastal forts were meant to protect New Orleans

from naval forces entering lake pontchartrain from lake borgne.

Two mid-waterways that connected New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico.

New Orleans' position at the end of the Mississippi river

had been lucrative but it also made it a target.

The Mississippi river was the principal highway

of the United States for travel and trade.

You had to protect New Orleans as the likely place

where a lot of American exports would go out of the country

and where imports would come into the country.

Whoever controls that port controls the future of the United States.

The importance of New Orleans

was made devastatingly clear in the war of 1812.

The United States was a new nation wanting to assert their power

and this was a real attack,

this was a real threat from the British.

The British were beaten back in 1815,

just five miles from the vital city.

But the fledgling United States

wouldn't let anyone get that close again.

When completed in 1827

the forts used the latest military architecture

the forts used the latest military architecture

to protect the vital waterways.

Red bricks were used rather than wood and dirt

and the design was inspired by napoleonic military structures.

They've got this curved front

which was really quite groundbreaking for the time.

It allows for more cannons to protect the area along the water.

So, here what we're looking at

is the carriage for a 32-pounder Cannon

so the Cannon would sit on this carriage

with a train track going around the stonework here,

so that way that the Cannon could swivel and turn

and fire out at ships passing by.

During war time

this fort would have held a group of soldiers

in the number of 400 to 450.

The forts even housed a secret weapon

to deter against any waterborne attack.

These two brick structures that you see, here,

which somewhat look like oversized barbecue pits,

these are what are known as hot shot furnaces.

And the way this would work is that fires of coal

would be built underneath

and the solid shot would be heated up to red hot

and then placed in the Cannon and fired

and of course, this fort would have been designed

to fire at wooden vessels

and so that very hot shot would act as a burning agent

to the wooden vessels once fired out of the Cannon.

Heavily armed to defend against foreign invaders

these forts would instead become embroiled

in america's internal conflicts.

During the seminal war

the us government attempted to push indigenous people

the us government attempted to push indigenous people

from their land in Florida.

The idea of the United States government

was to move these people

out to the western states onto reservations.

From 1837 these thick walls

were repurposed to keep people, not out but in.

They also needed somewhere to hold the imprisoned seminal people

who were waiting for their forced relocation.

And fort pike had just the right position and accessibility.

So at any given time,

there might have been some 70, 80

seminal men women and children, here.

At the height, this area that you see, here,

would have housed some 237 prisoners.

We do have records of a couple of births, here,

as well as a couple of deaths,

now, unfortunately, we do not know

now, unfortunately, we do not know

where those cemeteries are on the grounds.

It's not known how many seminal people in total

were killed at the hands of the federal government,

around 3,000 were forcibly moved to reservations.

But a rupture in the constitutional fabric of the United States

would soon make forts, pike and macomb a staging post

for a different kind of fight back.

In January, 1861,

days before Louisiana succeeded from the union,

a new force arrived.

The fort was manned by several us soldiers

and Louisiana militia came and took the site over

and declared it as the property of Louisiana.

Now, this happened throughout the south

now, this happened throughout the south

and it was these types of actions

that actually sparked Abraham Lincoln

to send troops to the south that started the civil war.

Louisiana militia takes over this federal fort

but then they, in turn, are attacked from the sea by us forces

which actually don't have to bombard the fort,

they just show up with a powerful fleet,

and they say, "hey look we're going to like unleash hell

"unless you surrender."

New Orleans soon fell and these forts

became a base for a new kind of union soldier.

When the civil war started, black men who wanted to fight

were told that it was a white man's war and they were turned away.

But a brutal first year of fighting forced a re-think.

The civil war seemed nowhere near an end

and the union army desperately needed soldiers.

It was no longer a white man's fight.

Formed from a combination

of free and formerly enslaved African American men,

many of these new recruits had to learn everything from scratch.

Former slaves were not allowed near weapons

when they first enlisted in the union army,

they, therefore, needed to be trained to use guns

so that they would meet the standard of other union soldiers.

These forts, once occupied by the confederate troops

aiming to subjugate them, now, became their drill yards.

Once black Americans joined the fight,

fort pike and fort macomb

became training grounds for the us coloured troops.

And so, here, they worked on gunnery using the guns in the fort, itself,

and also just basic drill in order to become, you know,

federal troops that could then be deployed

against the confederate states of america.

The record of the African American soldiers

trained in these forts was exemplary.

The native guard units from Louisiana

actually participated in the siege at port Hudson

which was the first time that African American troops

were used in battle by the United States

as a unified force.

With the development of new military technologies during the civil war,

the forts were rendered obsolete.

They were soon abandoned to the elements

but their legacy lives on through the people who served, here.

After the fort was abandoned

these African American troops go out west

and become the buffalo soldiers

so fort pike is a very significant aspect

of African American military history

during and after the civil war.

These structures saw slavery at it's worst

but ended up becoming constructions of freedom.

Today, they are facing a new kind of attack.

These forts are a constant reminder

that as the coast of Louisiana slowly erodes

we are losing, not only our land mass,

but we are losing our history, we are losing our culture.

On Croatia's mount medvednica

high above the city of Zagreb are the ruins of a ghastly facility.

The snow-coated roads wind through the rugged mountain

which is home to wild boars and wolves.

You get this ominous feeling, you feel isolated and alone.

You get this ominous feeling, you feel isolated and alone.

An extensive complex emerges out of the pine trees.

It has clearly been exposed to the elements for some time.

The buildings and the forest have almost blended together,

the trees are coming out of the rooftops of this structure.

It's totally bare and neglected

with rubble scattered everywhere inside.

If Stephen King were here,

he would write a scary book about this place.

There are very few clues

that reveal the original purpose of this facility.

Built to alleviate suffering,

these walls, instead, became home to personal and political tragedy.

It's the story of love and murder in a monumental national crisis.

It's the story of love and murder in a monumental national crisis.

Marinko tot is an investigative journalist

who spent four years uncovering the truth of what went on, here.

Everybody in Zagreb

knows there is a big abandoned building up on the mountain

but only a few know the real story,

how it was built and what was its true meaning.

If it wasn't for a truly great love story

it may never have been built.

This romantic tale

began with the man who helped establish the facility.

The area in which we are right now

was an office of the first principal, milivoj dezman.

Dezman had a bit of a crush on his childhood sweetheart.

Dezman had a bit of a crush on his childhood sweetheart.

Lady sram was a star in Croatian theatre.

She was one of the most beautiful actresses of her age

and doctor dezman fell in love with her.

He wrote her love letters.

Unfortunately for dezman,

lady sram had gone on to marry another man

and have children with him.

He didn't give up hope that one day

he would be with the woman of his dreams.

Then, lady sram husband leaves her and this single mother

and her child need to be looked after.

Dezman stepped in and invited her into his home

but soon they would be together even more, permanently,

here at the brestovac sanatorium.

In the early 20th century

a cure for tuberculosis hadn't been found

and the world was still reliant

on sanitoriums to treat patients of tuberculosis.

On sanitoriums to treat patients of tuberculosis.

Down in the city there was a lot of industry, a lot of smoke,

a lot of coal facilities around

so the place was erected on the mountain

because of the easy access to nature and the fresh air for the patients.

This institution is the leading edge of medical science

right here in brestovac.

But the pioneering sanitorium may never have been built

were it not for a tragic turn of events.

Before construction began in 1909,

lady sram had been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

And doctor dezman is there for her.

In desperation, he did everything possible to treat his beloved.

He really started to lobby and initiate the public discussion,

he really started to lobby and initiate the public discussion,

he was involved in the fundraising

and all the permits needed to erect this facility

as soon as possible.

It is said that the main reason brestovac exists at this location

is because of his love towards lady sram.

She was one of the first patients at brestovac.

This room where lady sram spent her time

is directly above the room of doctor dezman

the room was beautiful and she spent a lot of time, here,

windows were large, she could see the forest,

she could see the city in the valley,

she could feel the fresh air,

the nature and everything surrounding her.

Despite dezman's love and determination,

in 1913 her condition took a turn for the worse.

In her final days

doctor dezman brought lady sram to his private office

doctor dezman brought lady sram to his private office

where she died in his arms.

After her death, brestovac entered an era of expansion.

There's a multi-storey building and then some ruins

and they're connected by this sort of epic corridor.

We believe that the vips were housed in the main building

and there was a degree of separation between classes

and that walkway basically was the bridge

between different classes of people

accommodated at any given time

because these rooms and services along in this complex

are not so spacious, they are really cramped up

and something just built

to accommodate as many people as possible.

Tuberculosis struck the high and the low and as a result,

a public facility like this bought all elements of society together.

These new buildings included large wards

where poorer patients could be cared for by fewer nursing staff.

The sanatorium was beginning

to reflect the increasingly fractured world outside its walls.

Because there was a lot of division in society,

this facility becomes

its own intense little version of the Balkans.

These rifts would see the once quiet hospital

ensnared in deadly conspiracy.

It's hard to believe that such a brutal plot

would have been conceived right here.

By 1921, the plot was already underway.

This was the brestovac library,

there would have been bookshelves,

wooden tables, furniture, it was very popular.

One of the patients, here,

who was sitting at the tables and reading

was Alia aliagicc, he was a member of the communist party.

Bomb-throwing anarchists, communists, partisans,

this part of the world was focused on wild politics.

For aliagicc only the wildest political statement would suffice.

Later on in maximum discretion under the table

in privacy the library offered,

along with his companions

he planned an assassination on the minister of interior.

He followed the minister to a park,

there he shot and killed him in cold blood.

There he shot and killed him in cold blood.

Aliagicc and his comrades were quickly rounded up

and he was sentenced to death.

After that assassination, communist party was banned

and went underground where it stayed for the next 20 years.

During the world war ii,

these underground forces would return to brestovac.

Facing off against invaders and collaborators.

The Nazis control Croatia

in part through the ustase,

the Croatian nationalist fascist militia.

Brestovac was changed

to become a hospital for the wounded Nazi and ustase soldiers.

By 1945 the communist forces

by 1945 the communist forces

had fought their way back to the sanatorium.

They had vengeance on their minds.

When the communist partisans come to these people,

who have been abusing them horribly for years,

the result is an orgy of violence.

They took these wounded soldiers out of the hospital

and into the forest and executed them.

Their remains are somewhere in the forests

around the facility, still undiscovered, today.

Rumours that the ghosts of these executed soldiers

still walk the corridors endow it with a still very eerie legacy.

Since its abandonment in 1968,

since its abandonment in 1968,

the sanatorium was forgotten and left to decay

but its story is still etched into the city below.

The whole legacy of brestovac

and the love story of doctor dezman towards lady sram

is so deeply embedded into urban folk law

that even one street bears the name of doctor dezman

and a rather nice restaurant bears the name of lady sram.

And marinko hopes that this facility

might one day help the people of Zagreb again.

It was inspired by emotion and by really community work

in order to erect it and it was the pride of the city.

I'm hoping it will, once more, be the pride of the city.

In the country of Georgia is an ancient refuge inside a mountain.

In the country of Georgia is an ancient refuge inside a mountain.

Georgia's physical geography

is breathtaking and this part is no exception.

The one thing that catches your eye immediately

is this almost vertical rock formation

that rises dramatically from the flat flood plain.

It appears to have suffered a cataclysmic event.

Dr Alicia: The landscape, here, used to look quite different.

It's as if the mountain had been blown up

and we're getting to see right inside of it.

Where once there was solid rock face,

now the hillside is honeycombed

with a Warren of passageways and cells.

There are long tunnels in many areas hidden from view,

there are long tunnels in many areas hidden from view,

it feels like it was a very secretive and defensive place.

But who built this subterranean sanctuary?

And why did they hide it from the world?

Guram kipiani has spent many years

exploring the ancient city of vardzia.

(Speaks foreign language)

The oldest settlements, here, date back thousands of years.

Many generations going back to the bronze age

have cut and honed the rock that is here,

the geology is perfect for it.

But the majority of the settlements visible, today,

began life in the 12th century.

They got their name when a young girl call tamar

was playing here with her uncle.

Young tamar got lost in the caves and when called for, replied,

"I'm here uncle."

Which in Georgian has the sounds,

'vard' and 'zia', thus giving the place its name vardzia.

Amongst the ruins of vardzia

is evidence that tamar was no ordinary girl.

Is evidence that tamar was no ordinary girl.

(Speaks foreign language)

Described as a king as a medieval Mark of respect

when she inherited the throne and the half-built vardzia

from her father in 1184 she was beset with enemies on all sides.

And turned to the tunnels for protection.

The mongols were trying to expand their territory westward,

this part of Georgia was very much in their sights.

It's no surprise the Georgians, here, wanted to hide,

the mongols were famed for their ruthlessness.

Faced with a seemingly imminent invasion

the queen ordered a rapid expansion of the cave network.

The only way to enter the city was through a secret tunnel

which started at the nearby river.

Vardzia was soon capable of housing

tens of thousands of residents,

along with it's thriving monastic community,

all concealed within the mountain.

The underground fortress originally had 6,000 rooms.

This really was a full-on city,

there were meeting rooms,

reception chambers, a throne room,

a bakery, a forge and a church, all housed in this complex.

It took about 50 years to construct

but when you consider that this was all done by hand,

but when you consider that this was all done by hand,

that doesn't seem that long.

Its residents had everything they needed

to remain self-sufficient for a long time.

(Speaks foreign language)

But before the mongol armies

could put vardzia's defences to the test,

queen tamar had to face-off against a different threat.

The battle of basian is one of the most important battles

in Georgian history.

Confronted by an overwhelming force of seljuk Turks,

it fell to the queen to inspire her nervous troops.

It fell to the queen to inspire her nervous troops.

Queen tamar is said to have addressed her army here at vardzia

walking barefoot down to the valley floor where her troops were amassed.

The Georgians successfully fought off the selguk Turks

and confirmed their status as the absolute power in the caucuses.

When tamar died in 1213 she left her nation stronger than ever

and vardzia continued life as a cultural and religious centre.

This was the zenith of the kingdom of Georgia.

But military prowess

could not protect the underground city from what was coming.

1283 was a tragic year for vardzia,

a huge earthquake struck destroying vast parts of the cave city.

The thing about the earthquake

the thing about the earthquake

is that it totally ruined the city's disguise.

The mountain face slid off with the extreme tremors

exposing the caves within.

No longer hidden from the world,

vardzia's importance slowly diminished.

Out of the rubble of the devastated city, one aspect of life returned.

After the earthquake,

a small religious community persisted.

They faced attacks and persecution in the now exposed caves.

But a small number of their descendants

have managed to continue their legacy today.

The remaining monks still live like their brethren from centuries past,

they collect their drinking and bathing water

they collect their drinking and bathing water

from the nearby ancient underground spring.

But mainly, it's tourists that you will see

wandering these tunnels and carved passageways.

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