All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S08E04.Mafia.Seaside.Resort.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: A beachside
resort in Bulgaria

built on deception
and dirty money.

Man: This is one of those cases
where fact is stranger than fiction.

A wind swept outpost in Scotland
hiding a once life-saving technology.

Woman: From the outside,

none of these buildings
are anything special.

But one in particular,
when you get inside it,

is just phenomenal.

A nondescript
tunnel in Switzerland

where there's more
than meets the eye.

Man: When you open the door it
exposes an underground labyrinth

that was constructed
when the world was teetering

on the edge of disaster.

And a shadowy sight in Iowa usa

plagued by its chequered past.

Woman: This place
is haunted by stories.

It began as an idyllic
home set in green pastures

until it turned into
something else.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In Scotland looking across

the cold waters
of the firth of forth

is a facility that was
once ahead of it's time.

Well, this place has
an apocalyptic feel to it.

Kind of a mad Max era thing,

you've got these
abandoned buildings

with rusty tin roofs and
all the glass is gone.

Has a real
institution feel to it.

There's not a
single pane of glass

left in the place
by the look of it.

Most of the doors are missing.

It's had it's time
and it's moved on.

Other features
here clearly point

to it's original
purpose of this place.

Instead of one or
maybe two long runways,

this site has loads of them,

crisscrossing each other
in a spaghetti junction.

You're used to seeing this
kind of jumble of runways

in modern day
airports but to find a,

a runway this complex
in remotest Scotland

is quite strange.

But inside one

non-descript building
lies a strange construction.

It's theatrical on its scale,

it's round it's white,
it's quite oppressive,

there's things
hanging up above you.

It's clearly incredibly
specialised.

The upper half is painted white

and the lower
half is painted blue

and this must have
some significance.

These crumbling remains

tell a story of remarkable
ingenuity and ambition.

At a time of national peril.

In 1940

these ram shackled structures
on this exposed coastline

went by a surprising name.

The name of the
location is hms jackdaw.

His majesty's ship jackdaw

and that is your clue
to what this place is.

This was not a raf
royal air force base.

This was a royal Navy air base.

The British Navy in its
infinite wisdom thought

that all land based airfields
that serve the royal Navy

had to have naval designations.

Her majesty's ship this,
her majesty's ship that.

Soon after the start of
the second world war,

pilots here were
training to operate

not from land bases but
from those on the sea.

By 1940

it was appreciated
that no battle at sea

could be won
without using aircraft.

Commander David hobbs

is a former royal Navy pilot

who spent decades
flying from aircraft carriers.

The Navy kept it's runways small

because it wanted pilots

to get used to the idea of
operating from a confined space.

Even the layout of the runways
prepared pilots for a life at sea.

With an aircraft carrier

your pilots are always
going to land in to wind

heading along the
line of the flight deck

with the carrier
steaming in to wind.

So, one of the ideas
of having 4 runways

is you've more often got a
runway that points in to wind.

But learning to
take off and land

was only the first
part of the training.

Away from the runways,

the royal Navy were
developing a secret weapon

one that would revolutionise
the fight on the high seas.

The floor is covered in debris

and bits of metal
and when you look up

you see this
bizarre contraption,

only half of which is left.

This machine was going to
help the allies win the war.

As war broke out,

the German Navy
launched their largest

and most advanced
battle ship yet.

Germany went in with one
of the biggest battle ships

anyone had ever
seen, the Bismarck.

This thing is a behemoth,
it displaces 50,000 tonnes.

It has an armament
of 8 big main guns,

12 secondary guns,
anti-aircraft guns.

It's an absolutely awe
inspiring floating battery.

As an island nation,

britain relied on imports

by sea to fuel it's war effort

and the Bismarck
posed a huge threat

to those vital supply lines.

But attacking it
would not be easy.

There's an old adage
among fliers that you know,

dive bombing a ship you're
going to put holes in the deck,

if you want to sink you
have to fire a torpedo at it.

With its powerful
anti-aircraft guns,

getting a plane close enough

to launch a torpedo

required a difficult and often
deadly aerial manoeuvre.

The young pilots
would have to perform

an almost 2 mile near
vertical dive in just 30 seconds.

It was from bases like this

that the dangerous training
for the mission took place.

They would take off
and they would practice

with dummy torpedoes
against dummy targets.

It's hard enough
on a dry clear day

but this is Scotland,

it's wet and windy

and of course they had
to train at night as well.

All of them were at
risk of blacking out

because the blood
would be slashing around

from their head to their
feet and then back up again.

Accidents were common,

good pilots were
lost in the firth of forth

miles away from the frontline.

Despite the tragic loss of life

it was still believed

that perfecting this manoeuvre

could make all the
difference in battle.

But the Navy needed a safer
way for pilots to master this tactic.

And the solution came
from a rather unlikely source.

A firm called fit ups

that made theatrical lighting

asked the admiralty

if there's anything they
could do for the war effort.

They explained to
them this training issue

and they came up
with a radical solution,

one of the worlds first
immersive flight simulators.

This is the torpedo
attack trainer...

The structure and equipment

were centred around
a replica cockpit

where the trainee
would take the stick.

It could roll up to 30
degrees either way

and it could pitch

I think it was 15 degrees
nose up or nose down,

obviously it didn't move

but when you open the throttle

a noise sounded like
an engine revving up

and the effect of the lighting

sweeping across
the blue painted floor

gave him the
impression of speed.

You can see the
horizon painted on here

so this is giving
you the effect of sea.

The area above here
is painted off white

because it was
the perfect colour

on which the lighting
gantry up here

could transmit the effect of
clouds, rain, snow, sleet passing etc.

A target ship was
projected on to the wall.

By changing it's
size and position,

the different stages of
an attack were simulated.

The pilot would find
and line up his target.

Dive towards the water
and level off, aim and fire.

A beam of light showed
whether he had hit his Mark.

This would have
operated all day every day

with a team of
instructors running it

and student pilot after
student pilot coming in here.

It was the first of it's
kind when you know,

this opened there was
literally nothing like it.

I'm told by people who flew it

that within seconds

once the lighting
was on and running

you really believed
you were in the effect

they were trying to give you,

a tropical paradise
or an arctic blizzard.

Undoubtedly a number of lives
were saved by this technology.

Not long before the torpedo
attack trainer came online,

the devastating effectiveness
of the Navy's torpedo bombers

would become clear.

So, on may 24th 1941

the Bismarck is set upon
by two British warships,

the hood and the prince of
wales in a big naval battle.

The Bismarck
managed to get a shell

right in to the ammunition
blocker of the hms hood

and the subsequent
fire tore the ship apart.

The Bismarck was damaged

but managed to get away

and the prince of
wales had no chance

to catch it up by itself.

Fortunately

the royal Navy's torpedo
planes were ready.

Two days later

a torpedo bomber launched
from the hms ark royal

intercepted the
fleeing Bismarck.

It only needed to get one
hit, one hit in a key place.

And it managed it.

The torpedo strike jammed
the Bismarck's rudder

and now all she could
do was spin in circles,

that gave the royal Navy
time to catch up and sink her.

Having proved that this
technique was crucial

even against the seemingly
impenetrable Bismarck,

this new technology

helped ensure that
torpedo bombers

continued to play a vital role
in numerous allied victories.

The torpedo bomber force
was extremely successful,

they sank a lot of enemy ships
which is what they were there to do.

They were a force
that achieved more

with not very much

than a lot of others in
the second world war.

When the war ended

however the miraculous
torpedo attack trainer

was no longer needed.

It was locked up,

they threw the key away

and basically it was
just left to fall apart.

So, what you see here is
80 years worth of neglect.

Although hms jackdaw
now lies forgotten

the training techniques
that began here

are still being used by
the royal Navy today.

That training has
been the foundation

for the fleet air
arm ever since.

With some aeroplanes
like the f35 lightening,

60% is carried
out in a simulator

because you can't do
it with the real weapon

in the real aeroplane
in the real world.

In Bulgaria

next to the blue
waters of the black sea,

lies a concrete shell
of epic proportions.

This is a sight you can't miss,

it commands a view
of the entire landscape,

these huge concrete structures
climb up and down the cliffs.

It is massive.

Nothing's in a straight line,

they're all built
along various arcs,

they surround
various courtyards.

This place was clearly built

to house many
people in great luxury.

As you walk through this site

you really get a sense
of what it's all about,

tower after tower of
apartments surrounds you,

these enormous
concrete structures

stand tall and
proud but unfinished.

They say that
property development

is about location,

location and location,

well look at this
location, it's gorgeous.

Why would you invest
so much in building here

only to walk away?

The answer to that question

is not just down to
the money drying up.

This is one of those cases
where fact is stranger than fiction.

You've got money laundering,
you've got the Russian mafia,

you've got
international intrigue

and they all culminate
in this massive site

being abandoned
before it was finished.

This area of the black sea

is a famous holiday destination

where property
is relatively cheap,

the view's stunning
and for developers

there is serious
money to be made.

In 2006,

lowdess, a somewhat
mysterious development company,

bought land from
the local government

and they did it with
the announced intention

of building a holiday
resort complex.

What they were planning

was a really big state
of the art luxury resort.

They were going
to have 5,000 units,

13 swimming pools,
pubs, restaurants, a theatre,

underground streets,
underground parking.

This luxury resort was to
be called costa del croco

and to help fund the project,

huge swathes of the
apartments were sold on spec.

Some of the folks who
bought them were investors

but a lot of them just
went to ordinary individuals.

Folks nearing retirement

or men and women just excited
at the prospect of a holiday home

in this most famous
of holidaying areas.

One of these people
was Anna Ivanova,

for Anna though it wasn't
just money she was investing

but also land she
owned near the site.

The construction started in 2007

and they just poured
everything in to it.

The crews worked day and night,
they bought in tonnes of cement,

all of these buildings
went up extremely quickly.

The project was due to be worth
a staggering 94 million pounds

and the plans were
hugely ambitious.

But unbeknownst to Anna,

this development was
hiding a very dirty secret.

This is a story about
people building here

for the purpose of turning
money they can't spend

in to clean money that
they can take anywhere.

Information began to come out

about who were the
real investors behind it,

turned out one of them was a
guy named konstantin ciganov

a notorious Russian mobster

who was part of a criminal
gang called euro mash.

In the 1980s

ciganov had been a
founding member of the gang.

This was back when
the Soviet union

was falling to pieces and
the old Soviet government

and the new Russian government
could not maintain control

so gangsters like
ciganov and his friends,

they became like the godfather.

Ciganov soon had
tens of millions of Euros

in illegal money gained
through violent crime

but before long the
authorities were on to him.

So, as Russia
starts to sort itself out

in the 1990s and early 2000s,

ciganov has got to leave Russia.

Ciganov claimed
Bulgarian citizenship

through his ancestry.

But he still had a major problem,
how to clean his dirty money.

You might wonder why
someone with vast money

from criminal enterprises

would want to invest some of it

in a beachfront resort property.

But ciganov was facing a problem
all mobsters face eventually,

what to do with their money.

You can't just go
to a bank and say

here's $50million or
Euros or whatever,

I don't know where I got it,

I never paid taxes on it

but I want you
to keep it for me.

Money laundering is a
very, very common activity

across criminal
enterprise internationally

and one of the most
common ways to do it

is by investing in
legal businesses.

Ciganov had started
making investments

in various enterprises.

One of those was the...

Property group and it's
investment in costa del croco.

Now, these millions which came

from ciganov's multiple
criminal enterprises,

they really should have
flagged him up to the police

but mysteriously
he got away with it.

We don't know exactly
what his relationship was

with the man who is now
the president of Bulgaria.

We don't know what
his relationship was

with the former head of
the Bulgarian secret service,

but what we do know is that
they all played soccer together

and I guess that shows there
was a network of relationships

that konstantin ciganov

was able to use to
advantage for a while.

Ciganov's easy ride however
was about to come to an abrupt end.

In 2008 the global
financial crisis hit.

The bottom fell out
of the world's economy

and a lot of
financial institutions,

a lot of companies and a
lot of people went broke.

So, it starts in
the United States

but the consequences
are going to ripple outwards

like a stone thrown in a pond.

All of a sudden
nobody had extra money

to invest in anything

especially not anything
related to real estate

because real estate values
were collapsing all over the world.

Work in costa del
croco just stopped,

like somebody flipped a switch,

the crews just
left, no explanation.

For ciganov

the global financial crisis
wasn't his only problem.

It appears that there was
a shift in power in Bulgaria

and that shift in power meant

that ciganov's highly placed
friends could not help him anymore.

A year after the halt of
construction at costa del croco

in April 2010 ciganov,

his business partner

and a number of other
dangerous Russian mobsters

were arrested and
expelled from Bulgaria.

At that point ciganov
seems to have disappeared.

And there's no way to trace
what happened to the millions

that were invested
in costa del croco.

For those left behind,

this vast site is a
constant reminder

of what might have been.

In central Switzerland,
at the foot of the alps,

lies the medieval
city of lucerne.

It's a tranquil place surrounded

by the most
breath-taking scenery,

you've got mountains,
forests and gorgeous lakes.

It is a fantastic place to go

but as you're
travelling in your car

and you go through
a couple of tunnels,

just have a look around because
they are not what you think.

In a quiet suburb nearby

is a scene that at
first seems unrelated.

Tucked in amongst
a block of flats

there's this unassuming
door set in a wall of concrete.

It peaks out just below
this mound of grass

right next to a
children's playground.

When you open the door

it exposes an
underground labyrinth.

But inside it's a whole Warren

of passages and
rooms and spaces.

The hidden domain extends

all the way to the
busy motorway tunnels

connecting the two sites.

There was a lot of space
for people down here

because there's lots of
beds, there's kitchen areas,

there's offices,

there seems to be a
lot of individual rooms

for particular purposes.

The a2 motorway runs
directly through lucerne

carrying over 85,000
vehicles a day.

But these tunnels
weren't only designed

for handling traffic.

When this tunnel
was opened in 1976

it had a much bigger purpose.

One that was supposed to
protect the people of this city

in a time of national emergency.

Zora schelbert is an expert
on the site's ulterior use.

So, this is the security station

where they had prison cells

for potential tunnel
trouble makers

so if people hadn't been
obeying downstairs in the tunnels,

they would have been
pulled out of the tunnels

and put behind bars in here.

I have my doubts

if 16 prison places
would have been sufficient

considering the circumstances

that would have led
to people coming here

because they would have
been in greatest fear already.

Further clues in the
bowels of this place

show that prisoners wouldn't
have been alone down here.

This is a dorm

where 64 people would
have slept with bunk beds,

4 layers high,
not a lot of space.

There is some sort
of military element to it

in terms of communications
and medical facilities

but this was something bigger.

This was bigger than
what would house an army.

The key to understanding
this buried structure

is the era in which
it was created.

I mean Switzerland is
famous for its neutrality

and yet it doesn't mean it,

it isn't er, under threat
from other things.

At the time this
structure was built

the world was staring

down the barrel of
the deadliest threat

it had faced since the
end of world war two.

The cold war bought an urgent
need to protect the population

from a nuclear strike.

It is important to realise

that the fear was not to be

under direct attack
during the cold war,

the fear was always to
become collateral damage

between the Soviets
and er, the us.

So, the Swiss introduced a law

that required nuclear shelters
for the entire population

and in some places
this meant thinking big.

This is the sonnenberg shelter

completed at a cost of over 300
million pound in today's money,

the price of protecting
a city's population

doesn't come cheap.

The mountain hides
the true engineering

in this particular location,

you will never ever know how
much work has gone in to this.

But it's there and
it was expensive.

The two motorway tunnels
stretch on for almost a mile.

At their heart

a 7 storey logistics
centre was built.

If called upon

the intention was
that the entire complex

could be transformed
in to the world's largest

civilian nuclear bunker.

If the alarm sounded
20,000 of the cities residents

would descend on the
fortified fall out shelter,

with the doors closed

the road would then be converted

in to a vast makeshift
accommodation block.

This building here is not

where the 20,000
would have been living

but in here,

this is one of the
two motorway tunnels,

these would have been
filled with beds and toilet areas

for 10,000 people each.

450 tonnes of flat
pack structures,

beds and bathrooms

were all stored
ready for assembly

and to ensure life
underground ran smoothly

the bunker contained
a command room,

hospital, prison, radio station

and when operating could house

a staff of 700 in
the logistics centre.

State of the art technology
made certain the tunnels occupants

had a clean supply
of breathable oxygen.

Those air filters were vital

for the tunnel inhabitants

because during the cold war

the threats were
nuclear threats mostly

so they needed a very
powerful air filtration system

to protect the
tunnel inhabitants.

But if the dooms day bunker
was ever called in to action,

would it all have
worked as planned?

In 1987 it was put to the
test, operation ant had begun.

The Swiss maybe known
for their time keeping

but this particular operation
didn't run like clockwork.

First of all it took 24
hours to shut the doors,

there were some problems
with the door mechanisms.

Although officially this
part of the test did work,

there are numerous
people involved

that say that one of the doors
didn't actually close properly

and if this was not a test

that would have been
fatal for everyone inside.

Malfunctioning doors however,

weren't the only life
threatening issue.

Not only could the 20,000 beds
not be assembled quickly enough,

even if that had gone to plan

they'd have run out of water
within just 2 weeks anyway.

So, operation ant was probably

the beginning of
the end of this facility,

of the idea of housing 20,000
people in the two motorway tunnels

because the drill showed
that it would have taken

way too long to get everything
ready in the case of a nuclear problem.

The scope and scale of the
site's use as a nuclear bunker

was reduced over the years,

and eventually the two road tunnels
became single purpose structures.

In 2006 the grand
plan was abandoned.

Traffic does still flow
through the tunnel 24 7

but it's days as a nuclear
bunker are long gone.

Today one section
of the central complex

remains on standby
as an emergency bunker

ready to house 2,000 people.

Just 10% of the original plant.

But it does go to show you that
when faced with something like

nuclear terror or nuclear
disaster just what lengths

people might go to to try
and protect their population.

In Iowa usa

stands a solitary building
filled with memories

of a troubled life.

This building is a really
large impressive structure

and back in the day this probably
would have been something

that caught people's attention.

It's surrounded by
acres of countryside

like a refuge away
from the industrial world.

But that picture
starts to change

as soon as you step
through the door.

So, yes there's peeling paint

and there's rust
and there's mould

but there's also these
really long corridors

with door after door after door,

there's just so many places

someone or something
could be hiding.

What haunted tales still
echo through these halls?

And what finally bought
this place to its knees?

There's a lot of stories
that took place here

but unfortunately a lot
of those stories are tragic.

The old cemetery nearby
gives us some clues

that whatever was going
on here, it wasn't ending well.

While uninhabited today
there is still evidence

of the property's final use as
a home to a few dozen people.

And as Cindy Anderson,

the site's manager
has discovered,

much of this is of
a personal nature.

One of the sad realities
of living in an institution

is that sometimes
when you left your things

didn't get to come with you.

And people's belongings
were left behind.

We don't know
who they belong to.

But worldly possessions
weren't necessarily

the only things
that didn't leave.

There's an energy that
seems to be you know,

swirling or when
you walk in to a place

you kind of get a
little tingle feeling.

Some people have reported

seeing apparitions
or hearing giggling

and if you're looking
for paranormal activity

you might be able
to find it in this place.

Many such reports
of paranormal activity

emanate from the
shadowy rooms below.

The most famous story
belongs to a supposed spirit

called the joker and
he roams the basement,

it's said that he hung
himself down there

and has stalked the
corridors ever since.

He has thrown things,

I have been pushed, I
have had my hair pulled.

He likes to also be
a little intimidating

so he might get up close to you

so that he can overwhelm
you at some point.

This place is haunted by stories

that are linked to it's past,

it began as an idyllic
home set in green pastures

until it turned in
to something else.

Established in the mid 1800s,

the oldest traces of
the site can be found

at the rear of the property
like the old machine shop.

This is now in pieces

but originally it
would have stood up

near the main house
and it wasn't alone,

there would have been

a number of other
structures as well.

There was a corn crib on site,

there was a big barn.

They farmed, they had
animals, cows, pigs, chickens.

In the original system

when it was first created this
property had over 200 acres.

But this was no ordinary farm,

this place had another
specific purpose.

The state of Iowa

passed the poor laws
and under these laws

the counties created
homes for the poor,

these were designed

to be benevolent
charitable institutions.

The idea was that
the able bodied poor

who unable to find employment
could find shelter and work here.

The structure
standing here however

is not the original building.

This is Edinburgh manor.

Completed in 1911 it signalled
a whole new direction for the site.

As soon as this new
building was constructed,

a committee was established

to look in to mental
illness in the county

and with that a number of
patients who had mental illness

were transferred
to this new site.

It was becoming
almost a catch all

for all these social
problems in one place.

You end up with the vulnerable,

weak and elderly cohabiting
with the violent and threatening.

It's like throwing in
foxes in to the henhouse.

The use of some rooms may
have been altered over the years

but the design
laid the foundations

for a more
institutionalised approach

to social care.

On the women's
wing on the first floor

has some resident rooms

but you have a room that
contains your medications,

the majority of residents
would have been medicated.

On the opposite side,
on the men's wing,

very similar as well
you have some offices,

you have some resident rooms.

There's a game room
at the end of the hall,

they tried very, very hard

to make it a comfortable
place for people to be.

Reflecting changes taking
place across the country

and the care system,

some of the old
establishing ideas here

would soon be lost.

When it was a poor farm the
people were required to work,

they did not want lazy people.

After the transition
to this building

it was still considered that way

but over time the poor
farm system collapsed.

Global events like
the first world war

and the great depression

increased the pressure
on the care system

leading some to champion
a controversial new approach

known as eugenics.

You have social scientists
looking at county homes

and homes for the
incurably ill to say

what is it about these
people that makes them so.

The United States takes
some of this early charge

in the eugenics movement

and the movement for
compulsory sterilisation

of those who were
deemed genetically unfit

or institutionalised.

This facility does not
have as negative a history

as some of the others,

there are some poor
farms around the country

that people who were in
charge were not nice people.

They did not take
care of the residents.

While Edinburgh manor
escaped that horror,

it would soon face struggles

that plagued similar
facilities across the us.

Sadly over the years

with this place being
under such strain,

there were reports of violence,

assaults and even
suicides at the property.

In the 1950s

we've learned of a gentleman
who didn't like it here.

Wasn't a locked facility,

he could have walked
out the front door

any time he wanted

instead he chose to
leave by hanging himself

and he did hang
himself in a small room

at the end of the
hall on the first floor.

When you have a
stressed infrastructure

that is caring for so
many different people

with so many different needs

it unfortunately means

that most of these people
aren't getting the kind of care

that they need, that's
individualised to them.

One room found in the basement

added in the late 1960s
speaks to those troubling times.

This room here was
the original padded room,

back then if you
were out of control

they would grab you and
put you in a straight jacket

then they would put
you in a room like this.

And then you would have sat here
until you could calm yourself down

and then they would let you out.

For almost 100 years this
building moved with the times,

accepting new patients,

adapting it's layout

and trialling new approaches.

But finally in 2010

Edinburgh manor was
deemed unfit for use.

While advances and improvements
to the us care system continue,

many issues remain
to be confronted.

We still have a legacy
of those institutions today,

we have hospice care,
we have nursing homes,

we have all of these
other institutions

where we put people who
cannot care for themselves

but we also have a history of
mass incarceration in our country

and depending on

what source you look at
10 to 30% of those inmates

have mental illness.

So, have we reformed
our institutions

or are we just reshaping
them in new forms?

I think the stories that
are linked to this house,

about its haunted
past still haunt us today

because we're still dealing with
so many of the same problems.

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