All language subtitles for Bettany.Hughes.Treasures.of.the.World.S01E02.Treasures.of.Malta.720p.ALL4.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-NTb_Subtitles01.ENG

I'm travelling the world,

exploring secrets and wonders.

This is really tight!

An adventure by land and sea

to the most fascinating places...

This is absolutely incredible.

..where I've been given special
access

to significant and surprising
treasures...

It's so tiny and absolutely unique.

..buried in ancient sites,

extraordinary buildings

and glorious works of art

that help to explain the story of
us.

Come with me as I reveal how the
past has shaped our lives.

From medieval treasures

to the Second World War,

a prehistoric temple

to Queen Elizabeth and Prince
Philip's romantic hideaway,

I'm exploring the fascinating island
of Malta.

Its story is unique and brilliantly
rich,

so I'm very lucky to get to explore
it.

At only 17 miles across,

Malta may be the world's tenth
smallest country,

but this tiny island is a rich
layer cake of history.

Malta's strategic location,

right at the very heart of the
Mediterranean,

means it's attracted friends and
foes.

It's been fought over by foreign
powers for thousands of years.

So, from Stone Age travellers to
Crusader knights

to British royalty,

all kinds of outsiders have left
their mark here,

meaning this is one of the most
remarkable time capsules in the
world.

With unique access to the island's
treasures,

I'm exploring what the story of
Malta

reveals about the world and us.

The Maltese archipelago sits between
Africa and Europe,

and my first treasure exists thanks
to that pivotal location.

It's a 500-year-old wonder of
construction,

a huge, imposing city fortress,

a reminder that crises can spur
creativity.

This is one of the most strategic
spots in the whole of the island.

Control this vantage point

and you control the Grand Harbour,

and therefore, you control the
island of Malta,

and beyond that, hundreds of miles
worth of seaways

right across the Mediterranean.

This is Fort St Angelo,

the gateway to Malta.

The lion's share of what you see
today was built

by The Order Of The Knights Of The
Hospital Of Saint John.

Under their command,

this fort witnessed one of the most
vicious

and game-changing conflicts in
history.

The story of the knights starts far
from here

in Jerusalem in the 11th century.

The Christian order was founded to
defend the Holy Land

and the pilgrims who travelled
there.

For 200 years, they were in the
Middle East,

building a hospital in Jerusalem,

and stayed until Muslim forces took
over the region

and they were kicked out.

They searched for a permanent base.

In 1530, the key power player of the
day,

the Holy Roman emperor,

finally found the knights a new
home -

this place.

At that point a half-ruined castle,

this could be an ideal HQ.

But there are two conditions.

Every year, the knights had to
supply the emperor

with a single peregrine falcon,

and they had to promise to wage
incessant war

against pirates and infidels.

The falcon was easily enough done.

As for pirates and infidels,

that was a bigger ask.

The emperor had in mind the
superpower of the day,

the Ottoman Turks,

steadily expanding their empire with
their eyes on Malta.

The knights had to weaponise their
new base,

so they expanded outwards, beyond
the castle,

constructing massive fortifications
on the rocks all around.

Once secure, the knights, known as
Hospitallers,

practised what they preached.

Because the knights were monks, they
were celibate.

They took vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience

and they were obliged to do good
works.

So, they looked after the poor, the
needy,

orphans and abandoned women.

Treating all patients, including
Jews and Muslims,

with practices partly inspired by
their time in the east.

In May 1565,

the knights had to put aside their
caring duties,

mustering every ounce of their
soldiering skills

because the Ottoman Turks were on
the attack.

Malta was besieged...

..and Fort St Angelo was the heart
of the knights' resistance.

On the 19th of May 1565,

almost 300 Ottoman ships sailed into
this harbour.

The horizon was white with their
sails.

And then, as the battle began,

eyewitnesses described the sea
running red with blood.

It was a struggle between two
superpowers

for control of the strategic island.

We're told that the Ottomans had
over 40,000 men

against just 700 knights

and 8,000 soldiers.

The defenders of Malta were
outnumbered four to one.

What followed was one of the
bloodiest

and most ferociously contested
sieges in history.

Time and time again,

the knights used incendiary devices,

basically dirty flaming bombs

that they catapulted out at the
enemy Ottoman ships.

At one point when the Turks had the
upper hand,

they took four headless bodies of
the knights,

gashed crossed into their chests,

lashed their bodies to crucifixes

and sent them back to Fort St Angelo
as a terrible message.

In retaliation, all of the Turkish
prisoners were decapitated,

and their heads were used as
cannonballs.

We're told that even the Maltese
women and children got involved,

pouring flaming oil from the
ramparts.

There was desperation and horror and
suffering on both sides,

Ottoman Turks and knights alike.

After four months,

Fort St Angelo still stood firm.

The Ottoman Turks retreated.

They'd lost 30,000 men,

Malta, one third of its population.

But from the flames of destruction,

something wonderful arose.

Surviving the crisis of the Ottoman
attack,

the knights were galvanised to build
a splendid new city -

Valletta.

Valletta, named after the leader of
the order,

Jean Parisot de la Valette,

was a bold new dream metropolis.

And with its giant secure walls,

the whole city became a fortress,

a kind of child of Fort St Angelo,

keeping the Maltese and its knights
safe.

After the horrors of the siege,

the Maltese resolved never to be
vulnerable again.

So, they constructed a secret
subterranean world

under the streets,

and I've been tipped off there is
access down there,

somewhere a bit special.

Hi. Hello.

Sorry to disturb you. I actually
need to get down here.

Would you mind sitting at another
table? Not at all.

It's OK. Thank you.

Sorry to disturb you.

That's great, thank you.

Thank you.

I just can't believe I've been
allowed down here.

The knights and the people of Malta

realised that they had a real ally
in the form of the rock

that the island itself is made of.

So, it's soft enough to carve
through,

but strong enough to support huge
weight.

It's perfect anti-siege engineering.

Now, the fortified city could be
more self-sufficient.

Down here, there are sophisticated
sanitation systems

and vaults for storing food

and huge systems like this

that would keep the population of
Malta fed and watered for months.

This subterranean innovation helped
keep the Maltese people safe

from disease and starvation for
centuries.

Fired by the suffering of the Great
Siege of Malta,

centred on Fort St Angelo.

Fort St Angelo is a wonder for me

because it reminds us that necessity
really is the mother of invention

and that we should understand
history from all vantage points.

My next treasure reveals a story
of exile and achievement...

..because, five centuries ago,

a notorious artist on the run fled
here

and produced a work that would mark
a turning point

in the history of art.

Caravaggio was an Italian painter

who was born in Milan in the 16th
century.

He was really a wild genius who
created incredible works.

He used real people as models,

even for biblical figures...

..ushering in a naturalistic style,

kick-starting modern painting.

But for me, this particular painting

is a real wonder of Malta.

And the story of how it came to be
created here on this island

is one packed with intrigue,
corruption and murder.

This, Caravaggio's masterpiece,

is particularly amazing when you
know its backstory.

There was a dark side

to Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio.

He'd wounded a police officer

and he picked one drunken brawl
after another.

He was tortured and talented and
dangerous.

In his motherland, Italy,

he killed a well-connected Roman in
a duel.

With a price on his head,

he fled south to Malta.

The knights immediately latched onto
this celebrity

and admitted Caravaggio as a novice
to the Order Of Saint John.

From brawler to murderer to
Christian knight,

it was quite the transformation.

BELLS RING

Caravaggio was now apparently on the
side of the angels,

and the knights capitalised on his
presence.

In 1608, they commissioned him to
paint

a grand altarpiece for this, their
magnificent new cathedral.

Oh, this is absolutely incredible.

Oh.

A showcase for their Christian
order.

This is a fulcrum of the knights'
influence,

and trendy, turbulent,
talk-of-the-town Caravaggio

was asked to paint a statement
piece,

which is still here.

At the time, Caravaggio was still on
the run,

still wanted for murder,

so it's extraordinary he should be
asked to make a painting

for this holy place.

I'm about to see it in the flesh for
the first time.

That is completely remarkable...

..because you walk in, it doesn't
look as though you're looking at a
painting.

It feels as though you come in and
there's an open window,

and you're seeing something through
it that you really shouldn't be
witnessing.

In a prison yard,

an executioner is using a knife

to decapitate St John the Baptist.

A servant girl waits for the severed
head with a golden platter.

Other prisoners watch in horror from
a window.

They could be next.

Knowing Caravaggio's life story and
his state of mind

helps you read this painting in a
different way.

This doesn't just feel like an
illustration of a bible story.

It feels very personal, it feels
really intimate.

It's almost like photojournalism.

Caravaggio would've seen them
beheaded in the world around him,

and you wonder if this painting is
talking about that

or whether he's actually prefiguring
his own fate.

This is the only painting that
Caravaggio signed,

and where he chose to put his
signature

was in the blood that's pooling out
of John the Baptist's neck.

That has to say something about his
mental state,

about how dark and desperate he felt
while he was here.

Shortly after completing this
masterpiece,

the fugitive was in trouble yet
again.

Another brawl, and this time,

a high-ranking knight was severely
wounded.

Caravaggio's crime was really
serious,

so he was brought here to Fort St
Angelo for his incarceration,

and, believe it or not,

the prison is still here.

SHE GRUNTS, LAUGHS

BREATHING HEAVILY: OK.

I'm delighted I've got access,

but I hate small, dark spaces,

so I'm slightly anxious about this.

OK.

Oh, this is horrible.

WHISPERING: Hey, look at these.

Caravaggio, being Caravaggio, had
absolutely no intention

of being kept locked up down here,
and somehow...

I mean, we don't know how, after a
few weeks,

he managed to escape.

I mean, there's no way you could get
out of here by yourself,

so he must've bribed or maybe
blackmailed somebody.

What a stunt.

Caravaggio vanished from his
rock-cut cell...

..and from the island of Malta.

Even though Caravaggio wasn't here,

the knights put on a kind of show
trial.

They laid his robes to symbolise
the man in front of this painting

and they found him guilty.

If Caravaggio had been here in
person,

he'd have been beheaded.

As it was, they stripped him of his
promised knighthood.

Within two years, he was found dead

in mysterious circumstances,

quite possibly the knights' last
revenge.

Caravaggio's painting somehow fits

with the wonderful, complicated
nature of this place,

an island that's rarely at peace,

but that also boasts a wild,
dangerous beauty.

That's why, for me,

this maverick outsider's painting

is a bittersweet treasure of Malta,

a wonder created from the intense
isolation of exile.

From 1813 to 1964,

Malta was a British colony.

Our next treasure is a rather
surprising relic of that age.

This is a hidden wonder

with a connection to the British
royal family.

The young Princess Elizabeth lived
here with her new husband, Philip,

a commander in the British Navy
between 1949 and 1951.

What an amazing place to get access
to.

Yet to take the crown from her
father, King George VI,

she could enjoy an island paradise.

Today, it's in disrepair,

barely used since the royal couple
left.

It's hauntingly romantic.

This really does feel like a place
trapped in time.

Empty for years, rarely filmed,

these rooms seem thick with secrets
and stories.

So, why settle in Malta?

Once they were married,

Philip begged George VI to allow him
to return to active service

rather than his desk job at the
Admiralty,

"shuffling ships around all day," as
Philip put it.

The king agreed, but on the
condition

that Elizabeth didn't abandon him,

but would return from Malta to
Britain from time to time.

At the centre of the Mediterranean,

Malta was an ideal base for the
Royal Navy's fleet,

a command point for British
interests.

Philip was stationed here and
Elizabeth joined him

in time for their second wedding
anniversary.

While Philip was on active service,

Elizabeth could revel in their new
island home.

Oh, I love the colour of this room.

The house was lent to them by
Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten.

There are six bedrooms, three
bathrooms,

a grand hall and servants' quarters,

with separate apartments for Philip
and the princess.

This is...

This is a corner where I feel a bit
like I'm poking around a little bit
too much.

So, this was the princess's private
bathroom.

And her bedroom, with a fireplace,

very unusual in Malta at the time.

It's said that she loved this house

precisely because it's that -

a house, not a palace.

A home offering a rare chance to
live as a private person

rather than a princess.

An opportunity to experience a taste
of ordinary life.

Well, relatively ordinary.

These are the servants' stairs.

She kept pretty well-staffed.

So, she had a footman and a
lady-in-waiting and a detective

and 40 wardrobes of clothes.

But it wasn't all glamour and
privilege.

She did perform some royal duties
while she was here -

touring military installations and
cutting ceremonial ribbons

and visiting nursery schools -

but she also got to be just an
ordinary woman a lot of her days.

She would have lunch with officers'
wives

and, some day, even get her hair
done in beauty salons,

and we're told that, sometimes,

she even handled her own money.

One of the duke's great friends and
an equerry

said she only spent 10% of her time
here being a princess.

Less time as a princess seemed to
suit Elizabeth.

Leaving for a trip to London in
1949,

she was physically upset.

Lady Mountbatten, who was travelling
with her,

said that as she left, she had a
tear in her eye

and a lump in her throat,

and it was like putting a bird back
into a very small cage.

In Britain, Elizabeth discovered
she was pregnant with her second
child.

Princess Anne was born in August
1950.

As soon as possible, the couple were
back in Malta.

The place had become a haven,

and this time, they stayed even
longer.

But this private paradise existence
couldn't last forever.

After just a few months,

duty called the princess back to
Britain,

this time for good.

Her father's health was failing

and Elizabeth had to fill in for the
king more and more.

So, sadly, in 1951,

she had to say a final farewell to
this house that she so loved.

It's an extraordinary house

with an extraordinary past,

a treasure because it encapsulates
what an island can offer -

sanctuary and opportunity.

For Philip, a springboard to the
world,

and for Elizabeth, a place of refuge

where she could be who she wanted to
be.

My next treasure helped change
the course of history.

Despite this rather
unpromising entrance,

there's somewhere down here
that shaped all of our lives.

A network of tunnels whose nerve
centre was the Lascaris War Rooms.

These are the hidden
headquarters for a secret

mission in World War II that would
prove to be a major turning

point in the battle for Nazi
occupied Europe.

Because the Germans knew that Malta
was a prize they wanted to take.

A small, but crucial Allied
foothold in the Mediterranean.

So the Nazis decided to attack.

The Italian fascists,
their new allies,

began to bomb Malta just 24 hours
after they joined the war.

What had been an island sanctuary
had become a trap.

From 1940 to 1942,

15,000 tons of bombs were dropped
on Malta...

..and Paradise had become
a living hell.

Malta fast-became the most
bombed place on Earth.

This is just another raid.

No less terrible and no more
terrible than over 1,000 others.

Once more, the Rock of Malta would
provide a salvation.

Tunnels built almost 400 years
earlier by the Crusader Knights

of St John, where expanded
to create air raid shelters.

Ah! Oh, God.

It's really damp, it's really close.

The British brought in miners
from South Wales and Yorkshire,

along with the Royal Engineers
to help make these a temporary

sanctuary for the Maltese people.

Golly, they just go on, it just
goes on and on down here.

Once finished, these could house
close on the entire

population of Malta.

So you can still see these little,
erm... Remnants of life.

So kind of bottles left on the
ground and these little shelves...

Actually, that looks like
tiles in there, is it?

I don't know if they tried to
make a little bathroom here,

or a kind of kitchen
or something?

Oh, look at that.

I don't know if you can see that,
it's a Virgin Mary

that somebody's just
carved into the rock.

That's so sad, so it's like
the stone and her spirit

that's going to keep them
alive down here.

A family lived in each room.

The tunnels became streets.

So this must be a crossroads.

Ah, OK, that makes sense.

So I'd heard that they
made the street system

so it kind of mirrored
the city above.

Look, that's got the name on it.

Oh, my God, look at that.

So St Lucia's, so this must be...
There's a St Lucia Street up there.

Oh, there's something so touching
about that.

It's almost like this, you know,
it's a kind of parallel world

they're trying to create down here.

Oh, what suffering...

..and what bravery to
carry on life in this way.

By the time the raids came to
an end in November 1942,

the city of Valletta's population
had fallen

from 21,000 to just 6,000.

The air raids might have stopped,
but the war was far from over.

The top-secret area of
the underground network,

the war rooms, could now come
into its own.

By May 1943, the Nazis had been
driven out of North Africa.

And for the allies, the next obvious
place to attack was Sicily.

From Sicily, the allies could exert
pressure on Fascist Italy

and northward through Europe.

But they knew that the Germans
would realise that.

They had somehow to persuade
them otherwise.

Sicily was such an obvious target
that the Brits attempted all kinds

of ingenious plans to divert
the German's attention elsewhere.

The most infamous aimed to throw
the focus to Sardinia.

A corpse, a real corpse was dressed
as a Royal Marine.

And the body was planted with fake
papers, identifying the man

as William Martin, an officer
who'd been lost at sea

in a fictitious air crash
near Gibraltar.

Chained to the body was a briefcase
containing more fake

documents, hinting that after
Tunisia the allies

were going to invade Sardinia.

British intelligence rigged it
so that the body was washed up on

a Spanish beach where it was handed
over to the German authorities.

It was a great idea, and it's
a great story.

But sadly, this ruse had little
direct effect,

other than to raise the alarm...
And the stakes.

With the enemy's attention focused
on Sicily more than ever,

the allies were under
extreme pressure

as they planned their invasion.

So they sent troops and officers
from Britain, the US and Canada,

a massive international effort,
all to be commanded from Malta.

The whole thing would be
run from this room.

The Allied supreme commander,
General Dwight Eisenhower,

arrived to direct the operation
and he sat right here.

What followed, as the allies
prepared to take Sicily,

was one of the largest amphibious
operations ever attempted,

with more troops than D-Day.

Operation Husky was
launched in July 1943.

It all began just before dawn
on the 10th.

Over the next three days,
over 3,000 boats

transporting 150,000
ground troops...

..flanked by 4,000 aircraft
in the skies...

..made their way towards Sicily.

They were met by over 260,000
enemy access troops.

38 days of brutal, bitter
fighting followed.

Finally, the allies won out.

Italy's leader, Mussolini,
was deposed and arrested.

Hitler lost a key collaborator.

The allies gained a chance
to reclaim Europe.

From this very room...

Albeit with close
on 25,000 casualties,

the allies had taken their first
major step

in the liberation of Europe.

These war rooms made history
and are to be treasured.

Operations masterminded here saved
Malta from further horrors

impacting all our lives.

And there's a wonderful coda
to this story...

Malta's strategic location meant
that everyone living here

was in jeopardy, but the entire
population rose heroically

to the challenge.

And in recognition of their
continuous bravery,

despite repeated aerial attack
and besiegement,

in 1942 the George Cross was
awarded to the whole island,

Britain's highest award
for civilian bravery.

And that is still emblazoned
on the Maltese flag today.

My next treasure is an extraordinary
monument

to the human spirit...

..a boat ride away on Malta's sister
island, Gozo.

Over 7,000 years ago,

women and men packed onto flimsy
reed boats

and ventured out to this island

to try to make a new life for
themselves.

They came from what's now Sicily and
North Africa

in search of new opportunities.

They must've been curious or
desperate,

I mean, certainly, with an
incredible spiritual adventure,

to brave these waters in a small
boat,

not knowing what lay ahead of them.

In their new island home,

they created something remarkable -

Stone Age wonders,

evidence of the power of human
collaboration,

the bedrock of civilisation.

This is Ggantija Temple.

It was built over 5,500 years ago,

and it's one of the oldest
freestanding structures

in the world.

Incredibly, raised 1,000 years
before Stonehenge

and the Great Pyramids of ancient
Egypt.

The word Ggantija comes from ggant,

the Maltese for "giant".

There's a local legend that this
place was built

in a single day and a night

by a giantess who - wait for it -

was nursing a baby at her breast as
she worked.

I'm not surprised they tell stories
like this

because some of these stones are
over five metres long

and they weigh over 50 tonnes.

There's no evidence of slavery from
this culture.

It seems that, in a collective
effort,

they rolled the stones here.

And the complex art

this island community created
together and shared

celebrates the natural world...

..honouring their connection to the
earth,

the sea and the sky.

These temples are orientated to the
movement of stars,

to the rising and setting of the
sun,

so they must be something to do with
the progress of time,

with beginnings and ends,

with death and regeneration.

Basically, with the stories and
mysteries of life itself.

Incredibly, there are 42 more
megalithic sites

on this tiny archipelago.

My next treasure is one of them.

It's particularly special

because it's a mirror image of this
temple,

but under the ground,

and special for me

because I've wanted to get access to
this hidden wonder

beneath the city streets of Malta

all my adult life.

I have to say, I am properly hyped
about this

because this place is truly unique.

There is nothing else quite like it
from this time

anywhere in the world.

It's called Hypogeum,

literally, the under-earth place.

This was only discovered by accident
in 1902

when builders were drilling for a
while here.

This is one of the best preserved
subterranean Stone Age sites

in the world.

This really is a labyrinth down
here.

It's actually making me quite
nervous

because I know there are at least
34 different chambers

to get lost in.

And its sophisticated shapes should
look familiar.

This is a kind of underworld version
of the temples above.

So, you've got doors and windows

and that beautiful corbelled roof
has got a supportive beam

which, of course, it doesn't need
because it's underground here,

but it's engineering that's being
used

to prove that this is a kind of twin

of what lies above the earth.

This was clearly built by the same
people

as the Ggantija Temple above ground,

but the Hypogeum is even more
impressive.

Three stories deep,

reaching ten metres into the earth.

It would've been the most massive
effort

to hackle this out of the rural
rock.

I don't know if you can see there.

These are the marks left by the
tools that they used.

They were kind of prehistoric
pickaxe

made of horn or antler.

And what you've got to think is
that this was a time

when life was really, really hard.

So, you didn't know if there was
going to be a disease

or animal attack or crop failure,

so death was always just around the
corner.

So, to take time out to make this

tells me that what happened down
here

really, really mattered to the
people of the island.

Because this is where those Stone
Age islanders

tried to make sense of the world

and their place in it.

This place is magical for so many
reasons,

but this is surely has to be one of
the stars.

This beautiful figurine was found
down here.

This is a copy of the original

because the original was made over
four-and-a-half-thousand years ago.

We don't know who she is.

We don't know whether she's a
goddess or a priestess

or just an ordinary woman

or, because she's lying in this
perfect, peaceful sleep,

whether what she represents is
death.

Now, she was found in that pit down
there,

mixed up with a huge number of human
bones,

because what this place was used for

was a giant burial ground.

As many as 7,000 people

were buried here over time.

Women, men and children,

all in the same place.

There are these incredible red
symbols everywhere.

They're on the ceilings, on the
walls,

and they're very faded now.

It's so frustrating cos we don't
know what they mean,

but the people here also covered the
bones with red ochre,

so this must be something to do with
blood.

It must be something to do with life
and death.

And I think they must've understood
the magic of the cycle of life,

that we're all part of a bigger
matrix,

that material never really
disappears,

it just takes a new form.

Although most of the bone evidence
has disintegrated,

I'm incredibly fortunate to have
access

to one of the few intact skulls
excavated from the Hypogeum,

belonging to a 25-year-old male.

It is an amazing state of
preservation.

I have to say, it is such a
privilege

to be face to face with someone from
this remarkable prehistoric world

and to just imagine what those eyes
saw.

This was an individual,

a young man who chose to work
together with those around him

to pioneer new ideas

and who chose to be buried with
them, too.

The fact that they chose mass
burials

surely says that togetherness

hugely mattered to them,

perhaps above all else.

For me, these Stone Age treasures
are all beyond wonderful

because they're a product of women
and men collaborating,

forming a society,

the beginning of civilisation
itself.

So much has happened on this small
island across the last 8,000 years.

From the wildness of prehistoric
temples

to secret operations in World War
II,

from macho Crusader knights

to the delights of island life,

this has been a place of salvation
and of siege.

But it's also important because it's
a reminder

that no man or woman is an island,

that we're all the products of
interaction and shared inspirations

and pleasures and pains,

and that, for me, is why Malta is a
wonder -

because it's a microcosm of the
world

and of the human experience.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media