Original subtitles

A devastated Liberian landmark with American origins.

They thought that they could only fulfil their potential in Africa.

A Belgian town in the shadow of its destroyer.

It had to expand or die

but one group of people decided to do something about it.

An astronomical ruin above lake eirie, a victim of its own success.

In an ironic turn of events,

it was the growth of Cleveland itself

that led to the demise of this observatory.

And a mountain top retreat in Bolivia, drained of its lifeblood.

This building looks like it's teetering on the edge of the world.

Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds.

Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past, their secrets waiting to be revealed.

In the heart of Liberia's capital,

a disintegrating tower dominates the skyline.

In the middle of a busy street in

downtown Monrovia is a run-down skyscraper.

What has survived are these decorative concrete slabs.

Who are the people depicted here?

The inside is every bit decrepit as the outside.

Crumbling walls, rotting stairwells, it's just a mess.

Crumbling walls, rotting stairwells, it's just a mess.

There are still a few lingering traces of its former grandeur.

The stand-out feature

is this massive abstract stained glass window.

One large room looks like an auditorium,

could this have been a cinema?

You would never believe that this

was once one of Liberia's most important buildings.

Erected by a centuries old organisation,

with foundations in an American exodus,

this hollow skyscraper would witness their spectacular downfall.

Looking after this decaying building

is an impossible task for its caretaker losonny gray.

Is an impossible task for its caretaker losonny gray.

Before its untimely demise, this was Monrovia's cultural hub.

The building was a combination of offices

and an entertainment centre,

housing the largest auditorium in the entire country.

It even had the best restaurants in Monrovia.

But its original function was primarily political.

Built as the headquarters of the political party

that would dominate a century of Liberian politics,

it was named after the organisation’s first president - ej roye -

an American.

Edward James roye was born in

Newark Ohio and when he was 31, he decided to move himself to Liberia.

He became a very wealthy and successful merchant, to the point

at which he could even travel to the United States in his own ship.

Roye's rise to the head of one of the world's oldest political parties

and the Liberian presidency began in the turmoil of 19th century america.

In 1816, a group of influential white Americans got together

in 1816, a group of influential white Americans got together

to discuss what they saw as the problem

of growing numbers of emancipated African slaves.

They believed that with their newfound freedom

the former slaves would find it difficult to integrate

into white america

and they thought they could only fulfil their potential in Africa.

So they established an organisation

called the American colonisation society or acs

to find and organise the transportation

of former American slaves to west Africa

and to set them up when they arrived.

The federal government also assisted the acs in buying an area of land.

This land would eventually become part of modern Liberia.

Tempted by a new life away from the nation that had seen them

enslaved for generations, thousands set sail for Liberia's shores.

Enslaved for generations, thousands set sail for Liberia's shores.

Altogether, some 15,000 African Americans settled

and they became known as americo-Liberians.

They built American-looking homes

that resembled plantation homes,

they built American-looking churches,

they tried to create an American society essentially in Africa.

Even its flag reflects this relationship

to the United States because the two flags are strikingly similar.

In 1869 a group of these americo-Liberians

established the true whig party.

Only American settlers and their descendants were allowed to vote

so this eliminated any possibility

of competition from competing parties.

When roye took office in 1870,

when roye took office in 1870,

he was immediately faced with financial crisis.

His goal was to modernise Liberia,

particularly its schools and infrastructure,

but the way that he went about raising money for these projects

would be his downfall.

He took punishing loans from British banks,

which Liberia soon defaulted on, spiralling in to recession.

Deep resentment grew towards roye, he was accused of embezzlement

and even brought to trial

but managed to escape before the sentencing.

Less than two years after coming in to office,

he was overthrown and died in 1872.

The exact circumstances of roye's death are unknown.

One theory suggests he drowned while swimming to the safety

one theory suggests he drowned while swimming to the safety

of a British ship waiting in Monrovia's harbour.

Although one might think that roye's presidency ended in disgrace,

he is actually regarded as a hero in Liberia,

which is why the party's building was built in his honour.

Some believe that this headquarters building was actually constructed

on the spot where he was killed.

Completed in 1965

nearly a century after his death,

the ej roye building became the headquarters of the true whigs.

And stood testament to an era of americo-Liberian control.

But it wouldn't end up being in use for very long

because Liberia was about to be shaken to its very foundations.

In 1980, a coup d'etat would bring an end to the party's long rule.

Aggrieved by centuries of dominance by the americo-Liberian ruling class,

master sargent Samuel Doe led a group of indigenous Liberian soldiers

into the president's mansion.

There they executed the president

and began targeting his ministers and party headquarters.

After they were ousted from power,

the ej roye building was confiscated and left to decay.

A government agency eventually took over the building.

It became so derelict that it had to be closed for reconstruction.

In 2005, the true whig party

made a bid to return to frontline Liberian politics.

But reclaiming the ej roye building is an uphill struggle.

They still see the building

as the party's and a fierce legal battle is ongoing to stop

any construction or possession of the building

by government officials.

The party has filed a $us10 billion lawsuit

against the government.

Even in its ruined state,

this building is still regarded as a symbol and an icon

this building is still regarded as a symbol and an icon

of Liberia and Monrovia.

High in the andes mountains above the city of La Paz,

a ramshackle complex sits alone and exposed.

This building looks like it's teetering on the edge of the world.

The paintwork is degraded,

roof panels are missing and there's a faded grandeur to the place.

As you get closer,

other structures appear to rise out of the barren earth.

This strange glass pyramid looks more like an art installation.

Almost like a mini louvre.

Almost like a mini louvre.

Here the air is thin and the weather is ferocious.

This is extremely high altitude,

17,500 feet above sea level,

that's higher than the base camp a at Everest.

This place was once busy and bustling with tourists,

who would come from all over the globe.

You can see something pretty dramatic has taken place.

This isn't an isolated case,

what happened here is happening all across the planet

and the ramifications are only just beginning.

This is chacaltaya in western Bolivia.

Together, these dilapidated structures

together, these dilapidated structures

hold an extraordinary claim to fame.

This is the highest ski resort in the world

but it doesn't really resemble a ski resort anymore.

The slopes are empty, the bars silent.

Samuel mendoza is the guardian of this site.

He still remembers what this place was like in its heyday.

Skiing was brilliant all year round

and it was rated as a class one site

for international skiing competition.

This place was so popular it even hosted national ski championships.

After a day out on the slopes,

visitors could let their hair down at the resorts central hub,

the club endino refuge.

Samuel would stay up here most nights.

Living and skiing this high however

was extremely taxing on the human body.

Locals have another method of dealing with the altitude sickness.

For a long time, chacaltaya thrived.

But unbeknown to many the resort was doomed.

A hidden threat was about to change everything.

This used to be a full-scale glacier that lasted all year round,

this used to be a full-scale glacier that lasted all year round,

but as you can see from the lack of snow and ice,

the situation has changed in recent years.

Scientists set up a measuring station

to monitor the size of the glacier

and they noticed it was losing mass every year.

As global temperatures increase,

the atmosphere gets warmer and warmer

and the altitude at which things freeze

keeps getting higher and higher.

Once the glacier began to lose mass,

it only accelerated and this is due to the colour

which determines its reflectivity,

which determines its reflectivity,

so is it lost ice the colour kept getting darker

as the lower layers mixed with more and more dirt.

Nobody appreciated quite how fast this would happen.

In 2005, scientists predicted

that this glacier would last another 10 years,

however, this was optimistic.

By 2009, this 18,000 year old glacier had completely disappeared.

With it came the closure of the resort.

The ramifications were far greater in La Paz,

almost 6,000 feet below the resort.

These glaciers are not just commodities

for tourists to enjoy,

they're essential to supplying water to the neighbouring communities.

They depended on the glaciers

to hold the water during the rainy season,

acting like a dam so that it would be available during the dry seasons.

And now that this glacier is gone,

water rationing has become a reality for people in these communities.

Today the mountain is silent,

yet Samuel still takes his familiar route to check on the refuge.

For him not all hope is lost.

Unfortunately that looks more and more like wishful thinking.

As the situation with global warming only gets worse around the world,

the situation at chacaltaya is just going to grow more and more extreme.

The glacier is likely never going to return.

On the banks of Belgium's river scheldt

lies the carcass of a once thriving town.

We're in the outskirts of antwerp,

Belgium's second city and a key piece of real estate within Europe.

This is an ordinary working class neighbourhood

sandwiched between the city and acres of farmland.

And it looks just really, really abandoned.

Remains of the lives lived here point to a recent exodus.

There's hardly a window

that isn't boarded up and the streets are quiet and silent.

It's almost like a time capsule but from very recent history.

The dereliction on show doesn't offer an easy answer

to what happened here.

This is not Pompeii,

there's no huge natural disaster here, but where are all the people?

Dieter verschooren is a local journalist,

he has always known the Belgian town of doel

as a shell of its former self.

So this is the main street of doel,

when you enter the village you always come through this road.

When lots of people lived here,

you had a bakery and you had grocery store

and even a gas station, which is now all abandoned.

Some even find it ironic

that this once purposeful community now stands neglected.

So sometimes you can see in the poems on the buildings

that they have a small wordplay

with the name doel because doel means purpose in English as well.

Although the majority of the town is boarded up and empty,

there are signs that a few stalwart residents

continue to live amongst the relics of a better time.

Continue to live amongst the relics of a better time.

This is one of the signs that people put outside their houses

to show that the house is still lived in.

This particular sign says that this isn't a zoo,

just to prevent people or tourists standing around here

and staring at their house,

because how would you feel if someone just comes

and stand in front of your house and takes pictures of it.

And as you can see,

everything is being closed watched by cameras because they do have

a lot of vandalism and they're,

they're trying everything to prevent it

and sadly, it's the only way to give large fines

and have everything monitored by the cameras,

which are all over the place.

This isn't just like a movie set or a Hollywood theatre,

this actually is a village

and it's important that people know so they stop vandalising it,

they stop coming here,

they stop coming here,

acting like it's an amusement park, which it isn't.

Doel's inhabitants have been locked in a battle for the survival

of their town for over half a century.

The cause of this fight lies just beyond its vacant streets.

So, right in front of me is a nuclear power plant of doel,

it's really an institute here.

When you mention the name doel, you immediately say nuclear power plant.

It's an eyesight that you won't forget, er,

it's always spectacular to see

the large towers with the steam coming out of it.

Yet it wasn't the spectre of nuclear melt down that emptied the town.

But another mega project on the far side of the river.

That's where all the container terminals are,

that's where all the container terminals are,

where the large container ships come in,

the people of doel really live on the, on the edge

of the harbour and the industrial activities.

The port of antwerp is one of the busiest and biggest seaports

in the entire world

and it has been at the top of that list not just in recent history,

for hundreds and hundreds of years.

But in that time, shipping has changed.

As global consumerism took off in the second half of the 20th century,

the infrastructure it required began to feel the strain.

Trade is ramping up in really fascinating dynamic ways.

There is not only food, there are chemicals, there's clothing.

If the port of antwerp were to stay competitive,

it had to expand or die.

Port authorities soon turned their attention to doel.

Port authorities soon turned their attention to doel.

They see this quaint little village sitting just across the river

and they don't just see a village, they see opportunity.

In 1963, the town was earmarked for demolition,

to make way for an expansion of the port.

The 50 year battle to save doel had begun.

This is a tiny village against the state

and an incredibly wealthy port authority.

First they have to get rid of the resident population.

The authorities began a coordinated effort to remove

as many residents as possible.

It was actually made illegal to construct any more houses

in this area.

Most folks just gave up the ghost,

they packed up and leave and the place starts its transformation

they packed up and leave and the place starts its transformation

from thriving quaint village to ghost town.

That must be very weird to have to leave your homes,

leave everything behind,

everything you know er, about your childhood,

that must have been terrible for those people.

Despite the pressure, the people fought back.

Local council member, boudenwijn vlegels,

remembers how it played out.

The work of the activists certainly raised the profile of doel.

Suddenly, people in antwerp were aware that this area

was not going to go down without a fight.

If the authorities wanted a quiet land grab,

if the authorities wanted a quiet land grab,

the activists made sure that this was never going to happen.

By 1978, after 15 years of battling the plans,

it seemed that David had beaten Goliath.

The plans to clear the village were placed on hold

but this is by no means the end of the story.

By the 1990s, it became clear that the fight wasn't over yet.

Starting in 1995, the authorities again looked to empty the town.

They offered to buy the homes of any remaining residents

and they gave the impression

that the longer the residents waited,

the lower the offer on the homes would be.

It's about this time that the population of doel

goes from about 900 to 300 or 400

and things really become desperate at this point.

Officially, the idea was that the houses would be rented to residents

as the fate of the village was being decided.

But what happened was that a lot of the buildings

were simply abandoned and start to fall in to disrepair,

which suited the authorities just fine.

But just as the previous generation had in the 1960s and 70s,

residents and concerned citizens pulled together.

One group decides they're not going to lay down and just take it,

they're going to fight.

There were protests, there were rallies,

there were protests, there were rallies,

there was petitions, people wanted their voices to be heard.

The battle to save the town raged for over a decade.

Despite all the campaigner's efforts, in 2008,

all seemed to be lost.

Authorities took the brutal decision to send in the bulldozers,

they knew it would look bad and it did,

but the bulldozers went in and started knocking down buildings.

But soon, there was a breakthrough.

In 2009, it was ruled the state could not forcibly remove

the residents, so the bulldozing was stopped.

They were essentially at a stalemate,

the state being stopped in its tracks by the proletariat.

The state being stopped in its tracks by the proletariat.

In 2018, more than 50 years after the first plans to destroy doel

were announced,

the remaining residents received a welcome bit of news.

It was decided that the port of antwerp would be extended elsewhere,

leaving the residents of doel safe.

In Cleveland, Ohio, sits a once noble structure

intending to help satisfy humankind's thirst for knowledge.

It looks like a pretty residential road on the edge of east Cleveland

but if you look closer,

you'll see that it's a Hawking building sitting

on a hillside overlooking the town.

It's got odd wings going off in different angles

but most dramatically, there are two large domes on the roof.

The old domes are majestic but they're completely falling apart.

Built at a time of technological innovation,

this site played its part in a great scientific discovery.

It's clear this was an observatory meant for gazing into the heavens,

but the neighbourhood it's in was not the kind

you would typically put an observatory today.

You would typically put an observatory today.

Vines and decay have accumulated on the walls

but somehow the academic grandeur

has remained intact for all these years.

The overall aspect is one of sadness really,

clearly this was an important structure in its day,

and now it is neglected.

Who built this centre of learning

and how did the march of progress bring it all crashing back down

to earth?

I was here on my wedding day,

I was married in the observatory 41 years ago.

I think to be back here,

it seems like it might be a little bit daunting inside,

I'm a little bit worried about the integrity of the building,

the integrity of the floors, we'll just see how it goes.

Monica pershey lives locally.

Back in 1980, ed, her husband to be

was studying the history of astronomy.

The observatory was their dream wedding venue.

So we were looking for a place to be married and ed said,

“how about the observatory?”

Ed had his interest in astronomy and in telescopes

and all sorts of technological equipment.

My father, my uncles, all worked at NASA,

so I grew up with space exploration as a daily event in my household,

so it just seemed to kind of fall together.

It was snowing, late December,

very, very cold, we were married in the morning

so it was still kind of dim and cloudy

and it was a beautiful building at the time

and it was warm and cosy inside.

Like many of the city's residents,

this building holds a special place in their hearts.

This building holds a special place in their hearts.

Which makes its demise all the more upsetting.

I kind of feel like it didn't have to be this way,

things do fall apart,

but the vandalism is particularly heart-breaking to me.

It was very different than it is now,

the room had a large brass rail in the middle,

along the walls were murals,

notably astronomers, Galileo, copernicus, as I recall.

There was a lot of woodwork.

It had a very luxurious feel to it.

The observatory was first opened in the 1920s,

but the story of its conception

dates back four decades earlier when two men -

wooster Reid Warner and ambrose Swayze - decided to go into business.

Wooster Reid Warner and ambrose Swayze - decided to go into business.

So in 1880, Cleveland was one of the most important iron-making centres

in the United States.

The Warner and Swayze company quickly became

a leading manufacturer of precision tools and machine instruments,

but it was with their telescopes that they managed to change

the world.

They weren't academics,

they weren't scientists and they certainly weren't astronomers,

they were just two passionate individuals

who desperately wanted to know more about what's out there beyond earth.

The successful businessmen were also keen philanthropists

and tried to put their wealth to good use.

Looking up at the stars on a clear night was their shared passion

but they wanted it to be so much more than just a hobby.

This is the Warner and Swayze observatory.

Named after the two men who funded its construction.

Named after the two men who funded its construction.

For many years this is where students from case western,

it's now case western reserve university

did astronomical observations er, there was a prime, prime site.

John graboski is a historian

at case western reserve university today.

As a Cleveland native,

he understands the importance of the observatory to the local community.

This site is really, it's a landmark in the city's history

because it links to several things.

One, it links to the rise of science

and astronomy in Cleveland

and that really links directly to the creation

of the case school of applied science in 1881.

And it also really reflects on the industrial history of Cleveland,

because late 19th century,

Cleveland was burgeoning with industrial activity

and the science that was being funded and really pushed forward

and the science that was being funded and really pushed forward

by people like the Warner and Swayze.

The telescope Warner and Swayze made for this observatory

was a 9.5 inch refractor telescope.

In 1920 when this telescope was installed,

it wasn't really on the cutting edge,

there were much larger telescopes in use in other parts of the world.

Where we are now in the dome room,

for the first telescope that was here

and as we look around the dome room right now,

you can see the mechanism of rollers to move the dome,

you can see the slit where the telescope would have been through.

So this was you know, the mechanics,

the typical mechanics for an observatory at that point.

As the decades passed,

the capability of the observatory's telescope was soon eclipsed

by more powerful models.

If this site was to play any meaningful role

if this site was to play any meaningful role

in scientific advancement,

it was going to need some serious investment.

In November 1941, a brand new 24 inch telescope was installed.

Well the second dome was for a larger telescope,

it has a spectrometer,

it has technologies that allow them to capture images

and that really enhances the seeing here.

Over the next 20 or so years,

some really significant work would be done at this observatory.

Scientists managed to prove the theory that the milky way

was a spiral galaxy, and the cooler stars were located near its centre.

This is a really important discovery

in understanding both the formation of galaxies

but also their evolution, their life cycle.

But the observatory's position at the forefront

of astronomical research was under threat,

a powerful force was encroaching from the west.

The outskirts of Cleveland turned out to be

a really unfortunate place to build an observatory.

As the city grew,

so did the halo of light that surrounded its downtown and suburbs.

And with each new street light and home and car headlight,

the skies became brighter and the stars became dimmer.

The fact the city grew around it,

this became a bad place to look at the stars

because the light pollution was so bad here.

It became pretty clear that the golden age of observation

it became pretty clear that the golden age of observation

was coming to an end for the observatory.

The city's light pollution meant the Warner and Swayze observatory

was now only useful

as a setting for local amateurs to explore the heavens.

So the observatory transitioned from being a place of science

to a place of the people.

This became a great place for the public to come and learn

a little bit about astronomy

and get some wonderful glimpses of the planets and the stars.

The observatory was hailed as one of the best in the country

for public viewing.

But by the 1980s,

its star had fallen so low it was entirely abandoned.

The observatory lost its scientific value,

failed to pull in visitors

and it was the end of an era for star lovers.

The impact of Warner and Swayze's investment

can still be felt all across the city,

the observatory that bears their names

will always be remembered fondly.

They created one of the major industries in Cleveland

but both of them invested

their fortunes in education and in science.

The domes are a place where generations of students

and scientists looked at the sky

and tried to discern what was out there, tried to discover new things.

And that makes it special.

Captions edited by ai-media ai-media. TV