Original subtitles

Fortress.

Prisons. (Gate clangs)

Towers.

The castles have witnessed our history for centuries.

In Europe, over 100,000 are still standing, a thousand years later.

Let's visit the most spectacular and most mysterious castles.

We will discover the secrets that are hidden behind their walls.

(Thud)

And we will relive their long-lasting legends.

We are looking at the best-preserved Romanesque castle in Europe.

From the 11th century until the present,

Loarre has remained one of the most spectacular fortresses

we can still see today, both because of its location...

overlooking the Hoya de Huesca Valley in northeastern Spain,

and because of its robust construction,

sitting on top of a rocky limestone outcrop

that prevented attacks from underground.

It was a defensive bastion used by King Sancho III, the Great,

to halt the advance of Islam.

Dating from that time is the central core of the military complex,

which was later extended, to even include a church,

which was difficult and complicated to locate: St Peter of Loarre.

Loarre was constructed using the rocky formations,

turning any extension work into a challenge.

(Woman sings lyrical chant)

The church is on two floors,

and is accessed via a steep staircase.

And its interior contains some very audacious elements,

considering that it was built a thousand years ago.

The whole of the complex is a succession of twists and turns

on different levels:

intelligent solutions to overcome the problem of height.

Loarre had both a military and religious purpose.

It was not a castle designed for luxury.

For years it was home to a community of Augustine monks,

whose rules of behaviour

also initially followed the Order of the Templars.

One of Loarre's oldest legends

stems from that military and religious character,

associated with Christianity and the Holy War:

the legend of Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica.

He was a high-ranking soldier in the Roman Empire

whose position led to him being executed by his guards,

who ran him through with their lances.

It is said that hundreds of years later

his remains performed miracles,

and so the Christian community decided to move them.

The legend goes that the clerics following the mule,

upon witnessing this sign,

decided to deposit the remains in the castle,

leading to the construction of the Church of Saint Peter.

But Loarre also has its mysterious and ghostly aspects.

One of the legends has it that on the night of St John, in June,

the figure of a woman appears,

looking out from the balcony known as "the Queen's balcony".

She is waiting for her love, her own cousin,

to return from France, where he has gone to recruit troops.

She is Dona Violante, niece of the Pope Luna, Benedict XIII.

This happened in 1413, and Loarre, which had held out against the army,

had to surrender to King Ferdinand.

Dona Violante was imprisoned in the castle dungeons

and nothing more was heard of her.

This is Spain's most visited castle

and, without doubt, the most familiar in the world:

the Alcazar, or Fortress,

of Segovia,

100 kilometres from Madrid.

But hardly anyone knows that this marvel of architecture

owes part of its appearance to a bolt of lightning.

The term 'Alcazar', which comes from Arabic,

means 'fortified royal residence'.

But there can be no doubt

that the king who left an indelible mark on the Alcazar

was Alfonso X the Wise,

so named because of his love of culture, knowledge of the sciences,

astronomy and writing.

He was an innovator who laid the foundation stones

for democratisation of the Crown,

and who saw Segovia

as an important venue to carry out his modernisation plans.

The reign of Alfonso X

saw the beginnings of the majestic castle we can admire today.

For this reason, he began the construction of the keep.

The legend of the Alcazar, however,

tells that the renovations had a divine beginning.

Alfonso X apologised to the clergy,

but took advantage of the fire to renovate the palace to his liking.

The castle has a number of rooms intended for royal audiences

and celebrations, the work of successive monarchs.

One of them experienced a tragic event

that become a historical legend.

The youngest son of Henry II, King of Castile,

fell to his death from a window in the palace.

The child's grave is in Segovia Cathedral,

very close to the castle.

It was always said that he was around twelve years old,

but recent investigations into the contents of the tomb

place his age at just under a year old.

What really happened?

Perhaps the legend is a true reflection of the reality.

As the centuries went by,

the Alcazar changed from being a royal residence

to a prison for noblemen,

and in the 20th century it was converted

into a military artillery academy.

But it continues to delight anyone who comes to see it,

or who admires its outline from far away.

The history of Peniscola Castle

is inevitably linked with the Order of the Templars

and a mythical figure:

Pope Benedict XIII, the so-called Pope Luna,

the man at the centre of the Catholic Church's

most turbulent episode of the Middle Ages.

Peniscola Castle is on the Mediterranean coast

of the province of Castellon de la Plana, in eastern Spain.

It was a small Islamic fortification

which was reconquered by the Christians

at the end of the 13th century.

The castle became an imposing bastion on the Mediterranean coast,

considered a key location in the Crusades.

A few years after construction of the castle was completed,

the Knights Templar were forced to hand over Peniscola

to the King of Aragon.

Peniscola remained in the hands of the Crown of Aragon.

But soon afterwards, it took on huge importance again

when it became the headquarters of the Pope Luna, Benedict XIII,

who was forced to flee from France

because of the so-called Western Schism.

Who was the Pope Luna? His name was Pedro Luna.

He was elected Pope in France, on the death of Clement VII,

when Urban IV also occupied the position of Pope in Rome.

The Christian faith now had two popes at the same time,

and a problem.

With the French option defeated, Pope Luna took refuge in Peniscola.

The legends about the Pope Luna

draw their inspiration from his fierce character.

It is said that he had supernatural powers,

perhaps based on the level of his knowledge in many fields.

There were stories of how he was very familiar

with the properties of numerous herbs,

leading to him being considered an esoteric man.

The Pope Luna died at the age of 94.

And despite being declared the Anti-pope and a heretic,

it is said that he continued to be Pope until the end of his days.

Welcome to Coca Castle, in Segovia, central Spain.

An effusion of warlike and technological imagination

constructed by a master architect of Muslim origin called Ali Caro.

Commissioning Ali Caro to build a castle had another objective:

to save costs, given that the Mudejar master architects

were experts in the use of materials such as bricks and mortar,

eliminating the use of stone.

Coca is a sunken castle.

It wasn't built on a hill,

but rather rose up from below the surface of the land.

The idea was to make it less vulnerable to artillery,

which at that time was beginning to wreak havoc in sieges.

Brick was also better at absorbing impacts.

The huge moat never contained water.

The idea was to keep the enemy at a distance

and force it to descend to that height

if it wanted to attack the castle.

What's more, the walls were faceted for two reasons:

to cause artillery projectiles to bounce off them,

and at the same time prevent the enemy

from climbing the walls, using ladders.

Coca has numerous technical details that continue to provoke admiration

because of the intelligence of the person who designed it.

Or because of his malicious way of thinking.

This is not a normal vault. This was the dungeon.

There was no other opening into the room.

Prisoners were thrown down through the hole in the top.

The fall from six metres usually broke a number of bones...

but they received no attention.

One part of the circular wall was made of brick

with the mortar sloping downwards to prevent any attempt to climb up,

quite a useless endeavour.

In a place like this, with no points of spatial reference,

prisoners went out of their minds.

They were taken out after four months, completely mad.

The castle has an underground tank for water emerging from a spring,

the entrance to which is at the base of this battlement.

It is said that

to test whether the water was permanently drinkable,

they kept a single freshwater fish in the tank.

If it died, the water could be poisoned.

And they only kept one fish there, to prevent it reproducing.

A most curious system to warn of poisoning.

The water galleries were also used

to detect possible incursions through the tunnels,

as the water could transmit the vibrations of the excavations.

In those meetings,

the historic legend of the love between Maria Fonseca,

the daughter of Antonio de Fonseca, captain of the Catholic monarchs,

and the Marquis of Cenete, was forged.

The captain, who had other plans for his daughter,

rejected this relationship and married her to another.

The Marquis, in a crazed attempt to rescue his loved one,

attacked the castle with his small army,

and was severely burnt by the boiling oil

poured through the machicolations in the battlements.

Maria was widowed soon afterwards.

When he heard the news,

the Marquis of Cenete kidnapped Maria

and married her a short time later.

He was sent to prison for his pains by Queen Isabella,

and was released upon the sovereign's death.

In a castle designed for war,

but which has no ghosts, spectres or impossible legends,

this love story with a happy ending

gives these magnificent towers and walls a human feel.

A German traveller wrote in the 15th century:

"No king has a more beautiful palace and castle,

"with so many gilded rooms."

He was talking about this one,

Olite Castle in Navarre, northern Spain,

and on his travels around Europe

he had seen nothing to compare with it.

The castle was built as an absolute expression of power and elegance.

Charles III, the monarch of the then Kingdom of Navarre,

known as Charles the Noble,

ordered the construction of a fortified residence

that would be a symbol in response to the political ambitions

of other Spanish and European nobles.

Olite is notable for its innovation and a certain extravagance.

This perception of luxury prompted Charles III

to bring numerous exotic animals from different parts of the world.

The royal cage was in this courtyard, and covered with a net

that prevented the birds from flying off.

You have the impression of still being able to hear

the singing of some tropical birds here,

where the walls still have the holes

that supported the bars on which they slept.

It is said that there were also camels, ostriches

and even a lion, the protagonist of one of the most curious legends.

(Lion roars)

It is said that the lion's roaring

can sometimes be heard from the nearby hotel,

in the converted outside portion of the Palace-Castle.

The zoo was perhaps the most extravagant part of the palace.

It is said that it also had hanging gardens

covering a large part of the facades,

which were the admiration of its visitors.

The secret to keeping the enormous tropical and climbing plants fresh

was none other than an innovative irrigation system

using lead pipes that circulated around the inside of the walls.

Quite extraordinary.

Also worthy of note is this oval-shaped construction:

a huge refrigerator.

They would fill it with snow and use it both for preserving foods

and for medicinal purposes,

to treat bruising or to reduce fever.

But so much luxury and the pressure involved in maintaining it

affected the king, who it was said went out of his mind

and began hearing voices and laments.

It is claimed they can still be heard today.

(Unearthly musical tones)

A portrait of Charles III nearing the end of his life

shows us a terrified man, staring at what looks like a diabolical mask

reflected in the painting.

In 1813, Olite was burnt down by the Spanish general Francisco Espoz

to prevent it falling into the hands of Napoleon.

It was rebuilt in 1937.

But you can still hear whispers, laments, and the roaring of a lion.

(Lion roars and growls)

One of Spain's most original castles is this one,

the Castle-Palace of Belmonte,

in the southwest of the province of Cuenca,

in central Spain.

Despite being a genuine defensive fortification,

it was designed more as a palace for nobles.

During its almost eight centuries of history,

it has been a royal residence, a palace of retreat,

a monastery.

Its two major protagonists are two women with great personality:

Joanna la Beltraneja and the empress Eugenia de Montijo.

The history of Belmonte is closely associated

with the tremendous confusion

surrounding the succession to the Spanish throne in the 15th century,

which finally ended up in the hands of the Catholic monarchs.

To cut a long story short, Joanna and her supporters

became involved in a civil war,

supported by the King of Portugal.

Although never clearly defeated,

her army gradually withdrew in favour of her cousin,

Isabella of Castile, the Catholic queen.

On her withdrawal,

Joanna la Beltraneja was held in Belmonte Castle

for a period of time.

It is not clear whether she remained in the castle as a guest

or whether she was actually imprisoned.

Joanna la Beltraneja fled from Belmonte,

and it is not clear whether she did so with help

or whether she had to use her own wits to escape.

Back then, prisoners were subjected to cruel forms of torture.

At Belmonte there are records, as in other castles,

of the use of Chinese water torture,

which is sometimes erroneously confused with the "Malay boot".

The decoration in the current Belmonte Castle

is reminiscent of some French palaces.

This is because the person responsible for the restoration

was none other than an empress:

the Spanish empress Eugenia de Montijo...

married to Napoleon III,

emperor and last King of France.

More recently, Belmonte has been the setting

for a number of film shoots.

One such case was the 1961 filming of 'El Cid',

starring Charlton Heston.

One day, when the actor was leaving his caravan,

he claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman

looking out of a window in the keep.

It was never discovered whether this was true

or just a product of the palace's power of suggestion.

On the ruins of a Roman settlement,

the Arabs who conquered the Iberian Peninsula

understood the importance of this hill

and built this spectacular fortress:

Almodovar Castle.

It stands in a strategic location,

dominating the course of the River Guadalquivir

as it flows south towards Seville, in southern Spain.

The importance of this spot was also understood

by the Christian nobles in their slow but steady task

of reconquering captured territory.

We are talking about the 11th century,

when King Felipe VI, who had just conquered Toledo,

was now looking towards Cordoba and Seville.

The Muslim King of Cordoba

gave his wife a safe haven in Almodovar Castle.

Her name was Zaida,

and she is the protagonist of the legend

that still endures today in the fortress.

The legend has various versions.

Some say that Zaida, who had no news of her husband's death,

could sense him from far away,

and from that moment on began to wander around the castle,

refusing to eat and drink, dying of starvation.

This is the legend of 'La Encanta', the Charmed One.

The more historical version has it that Zaida asked for protection

from King Philip VI, who fell in love with her.

Some write that she was his lover.

Others say that she converted to Christianity, married the king

and gave him his first male child, the heir to the throne.

The reality is that ill-fortune pursued this beautiful princess,

who lived out her days in the court at Toledo.

However, numerous employees

working on the reconstruction of the castle eight centuries later

claim to have been surprised by the sight of the ghost of a woman

dressed in white, with a sad appearance,

appearing within the walls of Almodovar.

In the 14th century, it was for a long time

the residence of King Peter I of Castile, nicknamed The Cruel.

Let's look at one of the reasons why he got his nickname.

Peter the Cruel would lock his prisoners

in the dungeons at Almodovar.

Below them was the death cell...

a common feature of several castles.

Prisoners were thrown down into a spherical, door-less cell

from a great height.

It was impossible to escape from there,

and the prisoners died of starvation.

This cell gives rise to the legend.

Seeing that it was a place that no one could escape from,

Peter the Cruel had the idea of keeping his treasure there,

and installed a chain that could be used to descend

and retrieve it if necessary.

And then, so the legend goes,

he invented a macabre security system.

He brought in a trainer of venomous spiders,

so that the most lethal spider was permanently on the chain.

And the spider learnt that, if the chain moved,

it had to crawl down immediately

to attack whoever was hanging from it.

A malicious and twisted system, of that there is no doubt.

But Peter the Cruel was even more malicious.

He asked the trainer to train the spider to obey him as well.

And when he achieved his aim, he beheaded the spider trainer.

The king didn't want anyone else

to be able to reach the treasure at Almodovar del Rio.

This charming castle, 50 kilometres from Madrid,

is the castle of Manzanares el Real,

the fruit of a royal donation

and the brilliant historical period of the Mendoza family,

the Marquises of Santillana.

And like other elegant nobles

who feature in romantic legends and stories,

the story of this castle

is centred on an heir of the Mendoza family

and a young local shepherdess.

So, what happened?

In fact, Manzanares Castle is actually two castles.

700 metres away from the site of this one

is where the old one stood,

the first to be built by the Mendoza family.

King John of Castile had donated these lands

to Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza,

the fifth son of the first Marquis of Santillana.

His son Diego built the first castle,

of which only these remains are left.

It appears that the first castle was not worthy of the family's nobility.

However, it is said that there was a tunnel

that originally connected the two castles.

Nowadays, this watercourse has given way to a reservoir

that bears the name of Santillana,

in an area surrounded by mountains of granite rock.

A material that was used to construct the castle,

and which would have made digging a secret passageway very complicated.

The supposed passageway forms part of the legend

known as the Maricantina Legend.

It would appear that one of the Marquises of Santillana

fell in love with a young goat-herder from the village...

who they called Maricantina.

The story goes that they both used this passageway to meet in secret.

However, the family forced the young man

to marry someone of his noble rank.

Until just a few years ago,

the village children would not venture near the castle,

where people claim to have seen, on a number of occasions,

the ghost of Maricantina wandering the battlements,

bemoaning her sad fate.

The legend of Manzanares el Real is an excellent example

of the extreme social differences

that existed in the society of the Middle Ages.

This enormous brick construction,

built just as we see it today

in the 15th century,

was a luxury prison in a story that has become a royal legend.

The legend of Joanna, nicknamed "Joanna the Mad",

the Queen of Spain who never reigned

and whom everyone claimed had a mental disorder.

Mota Castle also signified a huge step forward

in fortress defence.

The first thing the Mudejar builders did

was sink the castle in an enormous moat,

which was not created to be filled with water,

but to prevent explosions from undermining the base.

It was also done like this

to provide three levels for shooting.

Those 100 cannons were arranged in galleries

measuring almost a kilometre long

on the different levels of the outer wall.

With so much noise from the cannon fire,

it was difficult to make yourself heard.

This is why the builders created distribution areas

from which the officers gave orders that reached the wall clearly

thanks to the carefully studied architectural design.

Designs such as the right-angled entrance

to prevent direct attacks on the main door,

and which culminated in a bastion

designed to prevent the artillery from being effective,

with the addition of round towers which repelled projectiles better.

This was where Hernando Pizarro,

brother of the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, was imprisoned.

His penchant for killing other illustrious soldiers

earned him a 20-year stay in the prison at Mota.

And then there was Cesar Borgia,

a Spanish nobleman and nephew of Pope Alexander VI,

taken prisoner in Naples in the war against Spain.

As an exemplary punishment, he was incarcerated in Mota.

However, undoubtedly the most well-known prisoner in the castle

was Joanna, daughter of Queen Isabella,

who has always gone by the name of Joanna the Mad.

Joanna never showed the slightest interest

in matters relating to religion or the Crown.

By all accounts, she was a very sensitive and introverted woman.

Her wedding to Philip the Handsome,

the incumbent Spanish emperor in Flanders,

gave him six children, but she was always very jealous of her husband.

She was held captive for two years in Mota Castle

on her mother's orders.

It is said that she would sit in her boudoir for hours,

gazing out of the window.

The death of her husband, with whom she was deeply in love,

sank her into a depression that bordered on dementia,

or so it was classified at the time.

The historical legend of Joanna has been revised in recent years

in an attempt to show that she was never mad,

but rather a shy and insecure person,

who was forced to suffer in the imposing Mota Castle

because of the queen mother's strong personality.

In this bed, just a few metres from the castle,

Isabella the Catholic dictated her will,

in which she recorded that the queen should be her daughter Joanna.

The queen who never got to reign.