All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S11E01.Hunt.for.the.Nazi.Gold.Train.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In Poland,
a fairy tale castle

at the heart
of a modern day
treasure hunt.

The world's media descended,

and what brought them all here

was the promise

of Nazi gold.

[narrator] In Georgia,
the millionaire's mansion

caught in a web
of controversy.

We're talking
about insurance claims

and alcoholism,

murder.

[narrator]
And an Irish country estate

drawn into a brutal fight
for freedom.

Owned by one of the most
hated men in Ireland,

some say that
this house was cursed.

[narrator] Decaying relics...

Ruins of lost worlds...

Sites haunted by the past...

Their secrets waiting...

to be revealed.

In southern Poland
is a commanding residence

rumored to harbor
a precious secret.

[birds chirping]

[Alexis Pedrick]
Up on the hilltop
kind of above the tree line

is this grand,
majestic structure.

[Rob Bell] Inside,
that splendor continues.

Red carpeted staircases

lead up to huge hallways
with marble floors.

[narrator]
Yet this opulent citadel

contains hidden depths.

Behind an
ordinary-looking door

is a secret
subterranean world.

[Bell] As your eyes adjust,

you start to get a sense

of just how large
this space is.

It's like you're walking
through a railway tunnel.

[Pedrick]
Some of the tunnels even

seem to have collapsed
or have been

deliberately destroyed.

Perhaps to hide something.

[narrator] For decades,
tales were told

of a brutal regime's riches

that went missing
in this exact area.

In 2016,

it appeared the truth

would finally be revealed.

And everybody's
waiting for the moment

when we finally get to see

the thing we're looking for.

Nazi gold.

[Pedrick] There's been some

sort of fortification here
since the late 1200s.

But over time
it's been destroyed

and rebuilt.

[Bell] In the early 1500s,
the Hoberg family took control

and their descendants owned it

right up
into the 20th century.

But in 1941,

the Nazi regime confiscated
the castle from its owners.

[narrator]
When the Germans invaded

and occupied Poland
during the Second World War,

they seized
many lavish residences.

This one is called
Ksiaz Castle,

and it served
as the Fuhrer's imperial
headquarters in this region.

[Bell] They wanted
to make it a palace

fit for Hitler himself,

and in 1943, work began

on remodeling the interiors
to fit his tastes.

[Dr. Lynette Nusbacher]
The Nazis are going to rip out

everything they think of as

decadent or overdecorative.

[narrator]
But it was below ground

the biggest changes were made.

[Bell] To ensure his safety,

a private escape elevator
was installed

just opposite
Hitler's bedroom door.

[narrator] The elevator led to

a vast underground network.

Excavated at great human cost

by inmates from
a nearby concentration camp.

The sheer scale
of the tunnel system

suggests it was much more
than just a place

for Hitler to hide.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Germany
is under immense stress
by this point in the war.

Scarce war materials
like concrete,

reinforcing bar,
all of these things

which could be used anywhere
in the German Reich

are being used here.

What is it
that justifies their use...

in this place?

[Bell] Historians
have theorized that they
could have been anything

from bombproof
underground factories

to chemical
or even nuclear research labs.

[narrator]
There is another theory
that might explain

what these tunnels
were used for.

Ksiaz Castle...

has long been linked
to a legend

forged in the dying days
of the Second World War.

It began when
the Soviet Red Army

approached the Nazi-occupied
city of Breslau,

sixty miles from here.

It's said that
during the chaos
of the evacuation,

an armored train
was loaded up

with more than
330 tons of gold,

a vast array of jewels,

weaponry,
and priceless works of art.

So the train
supposedly left the city

just before the attack

and started heading down
the line nearby

that ran to the castle.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
The legend has it
that this armored train

rattled through one station,

but never came
to the next station.

[Bell] But huge
armored trains
don't just disappear.

The story goes
that there was a railway line

leading into these
tunnel networks.

And that once the train
had passed through,

the entrance to the tunnel
was blown up,

hiding the train inside.

[narrator] Piotr Koper
is a treasure hunter

who has spent over a decade

searching for Hitler's
lost gold.

He suspects the tunnels below
Ksiaz Castle

were a secret
underground train line

once connected
to the main railway line,

only two miles from here.

This connection
is not a matter of faith,

or just a story.

Hitler's headquarters
had to be connected directly
to the railway line.

We believe that the train
is waiting for us

in one of the tunnels
linked to Ksiaz Castle.

[narrator] In August 2015,

Piotr and his business partner
made an exciting discovery

under an earthen embankment,

adjacent to
the main railway line.

We started
our investigations here

because of the testimonies
of witnesses who said

that they saw
a tunnel entrance
in this area.

[narrator] The fortune hunters
used ground-penetrating radar

to build up an image
of what was hidden
below ground.

The result showed
clear railway composition.

It was hard to say
because there's a lot of pipes

and iron here.

But it also showed
train carriages lined up

one after the other.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
It's so exciting
the idea that at long last,

after decades of tales
of Nazi gold,

we're finally
gonna find some.

[narrator] For decades,
the tunnel network below
Ksiaz Castle

has been
linked to the legend
of a buried Nazi gold train.

In 2016,

Piotr Koper
believed he had found it,

entombed at a spot two miles
away from the castle.

Local authorities
gave him just seven days

to complete his investigation.

Because the train line running
next to the excavation site

had to be shut down
during this time.

On August 16th, the dig began.

[Pedrick] The world's
media descended. I mean,

they were following
every moment.

[Bell] There was
a lot on the line

for Piotr and his partner.

Not only had they invested

a reported $131,000
in the dig,

their reputations
were also at stake.

After about 20 feet,

we hit an unbreakable rock.

We tried
another three trenches.

But always at the same depth,

it was completely solid.

[narrator]
The clock was ticking.

We prepared the drilling rig
for the next day.

But it was raining heavily.

The drill operator said that
it was impossible to drill

until the ground had hardened.

But we just didn't have time,

as that was the last day
of our permission.

[Pedrick] So after
seven days of digging,

they found... nothing.

No tunnel, no gold, no train.

[narrator] In the spotlight
of the world's media,

Piotr and his team
were forced to give up.

[Koper]
As the Polish saying goes,

"Success has many fathers,

and failure is an orphan."

Unfortunately, the second one
has happened to us.

[narrator]
Although Piotr's hunt
for the Nazi gold train

didn't go as planned,

the media attention did
provide an unexpected boost

to the region's economy.

An official from a nearby town

actually admitted
that during the year
of the dig,

tourism was up 44%.

And who knows?

Perhaps the Nazi gold train

is still out there.

Waiting to be found.

[narrator]
In Atlanta, Georgia,
is an extravagant abode,

built from the riches
of one of the world's

most famous business empires.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
We are in the leafy

suburban neighborhood
of Druid Hills.

And if you go
about 500 feet back

from the road,
there is this
enormous mansion.

[Sascha]
It sits on Briarcliff Road,

in an area
known as Briarcliff Village.

I'm guessing that Briarcliff
has something important

in the history of this region.

But what does it mean?

Inside are these huge rooms
with carved wood paneling.

A grand, like,
Gothic ballroom,

numerous bedrooms.

And on the top floor,

there seems to be
a hidden door

in one of the wall panels.

[narrator] The curiosities
of this mansion

can only be explained

by the eccentricities
of its owner,

the heir to a vast fortune.

He was often at the center

of a lot
of different controversy.

He did whatever he wanted,

and he didn't care.

This story's sort of like
a real-life version
of Succession.

I'm talking...

powerful people, narcissism.

Greed, sibling rivalry

and abuses of power.

All of which
left a permanent legacy

in the city of Atlanta.

[Sara Butler]
I moved to Atlanta in 2000,

and I lived here
for about 15 years

before I read about this
abandoned mansion
in the suburbs

and thought
I gotta go out and see it.

[narrator] Sara Butler
is an author and expert

on the history
of this century old property.

Her first visit inspired

a five-year journey
of discovery.

[Butler] I found
all of these stories
about the man who built it.

And the stories
were kind of wild.

Everything in this house
was designed to impress.

In order
to understand the man,

you have
to understand the house.

This is the home of

Asa Griggs Candler, Jr.

Or, as his friends and family

referred to him as Buddy.

He had a life
of immense privilege,

given that he was
the second son

and namesake
of Coca-Cola founder,

Asa Griggs Candler.

[narrator] But the journey
that motivated Buddy

to build such
a sprawling estate

was not as simple
as it might appear.

[Pedrick] As the story goes,
Buddy was a troubled kid.

He was mischievous.

According to everyone,
he was just really difficult
to discipline.

[Butler] Around the time
that he turned eight

was when his father
closed the deal

to take full ownership
of Coca-Cola and really
take it on.

And that's where he needed
his attention to be.

The only solution they felt
was to send him away

to an all-girls school.

The reason for that
is Asa, Sr.,

his sister, ran the school.

His status as the black sheep
of the family

only got worse
as time went on.

[narrator] During college,
Buddy moved in

with his older brother,
Charles Howard.

The younger sibling
soon developed

a reputation for bad behavior.

[Butler]
He made so much trouble

that his brother,
whose grades were great
during his freshman year,

started going down.

So he was kind of dragging
his brother down with him.

His father wrote
a letter that said,

"I don't know what I'm
going to do with Buddy,

but I gotta find
something to do with him."

And they shipped him off
to California for a year.

[narrator]
Fresh out of college,

Buddy was given
a shot at running

the family business
on the West Coast,

overseeing manufacturing,
orders,

and fulfillment.

It didn't go well.

[Gutierrez-Romine]
It probably didn't help that

he spent most of his time
drinking and partying.

[Butler] Asa Candler, Sr.
never let him have
a part of Coca Cola

as a business ever again.

His older brother
was always...

the son who did things right.

And Buddy was sort of the son
who did things wrong.

And... that put Buddy
in a position

of always trying
to outshine him.

[narrator] That motivation
prompted Buddy to build

an attention-grabbing
property,

just to compete
with his brother.

But he'd made
so many failed investments

that he didn't have the money

to buy the land
to build his new house on.

Yet Buddy always found a way.

[Butler] So in 1911,
a big fire broke out
in his garage

and destroyed all
of his very valuable cars,

all insured.

And conveniently,
within about a month,

he's moving his family
out to this property

that he couldn't quite afford
to close on until that moment.

[narrator] Buddy may
have owned the land,
but he still

didn't have the funds
to build his dream house.

He would have to wait

until the Coca-Cola Company
was sold in 1919,

when each
of the Candler siblings

was paid out handsomely.

Buddy finally got
the cash he needed

to start building the house

that would put his siblings
in the shade.

[narrator] It was called
Briarcliff Mansion.

And by 1922,

when Buddy was 42 years old,

it was ready for he
and his family to move into.

[Butler]
One of the things that I love

is that his brother
already lived on this road.

He built this house
and renamed the road.

So he renamed
his brother's address.
Briarcliff.

It was a nice little,
kind of finger to his brother.

[laughing]

[Gutierrez-Romine]
The name "Briarcliff" actually

comes from Buddy's most

beloved sports car,

the Lozier Briarcliff.

This, surprisingly,
was one of the few cars

to survive the mysterious
fire in his garage.

[Gutierrez-Romine] In 1925,

Buddy was still not content

with his home,
and so he decided

to build a music hall

that included
an in-home organ.

[Butler] The organ, for me,

is a really
key part of the story
to understand Buddy.

It was a little bit bigger
than his brother's.

Which was a little bit
bigger than their fathers.

So I like to say
in this family,

there was
an organ measuring contest,

but the organs
were actually organs.

[narrator] But Buddy
was never satisfied for long
and always needed

a new hobby
to occupy his time.

In this case,
that exciting new hobby
was magic.

[Sascha] He filled a room

with his magic tricks
and would regularly take

an airplane to New York City
just to buy more.

[narrator] His devotion
didn't stop there.

On a family vacation
to the Philippines,

he met a local magician
named Jose Cruz.

[Pedrick]
Buddy was so impressed
that he actually

took him back
with him to America.

Cruz was officially
employed as a butler,

but his real job

was as Buddy's
personal magic tutor.

[Sascha] But soon,
a terrible scandal

was going to engulf
Briarcliff Mansion.

And Buddy's love of magic

would be the least
of the casualties.

[narrator] In Atlanta
is the former mansion

of Coca-Cola heir,
Buddy Candler.

On January 18th, 1931,

he was woken
with the news his butler

and magic teacher, Jose Cruz,

had been found dead

on the grounds
of the property.

[Gutierrez-Romine] But this
wasn't an ordinary death.

Jose's body was found

next to a young woman
named Gladys.

And Gladys was also his lover.

And, at first, it appeared
that the two had died

in what appeared to be
a double suicide.

Gladys's parents disapproved
of the relationship

because Cruz was Filipino.

The suicide note
suggested that the couple

felt death was the only way

they could be
together forever.

But things
didn't quite add up.

[Butler] Ultimately,
what was determined by a jury

pulled together very quickly

was that
it was a murder suicide.

Jose Cruz was very troubled,

and he killed her
and killed himself.

It made national news.

[Pedrick]
The whole affair kinda...

left a bitter taste
in Buddy's mouth.

So he gave up
magic completely.

Um, the one thing though,
he did not give up,

was the bottle.

It's even rumored
that the start of his
next adventure

came because he was drunk

and at a circus in Europe

and bought a bunch of animals.

[narrator] In order to fund
his newest hobby,

he began charging admission

for people to come
visit his private zoo.

[Butler] We're not just
talking elephants.
We're talking...

lions, tigers,
black panthers,

uh, Shetland ponies,

a whole pack of bears.

But like many
of his other projects,

this one was doomed
from the start.

[Butler]
What he didn't anticipate
was how expensive it was

to run a zoo on your own lawn.

A dime a person
was never going to make him

enough money
to make this viable.

So within a year,

he was already
running in the red.

Within two years,

he was starting to lose
his temper with people.

This is heavy
in the drinking years.

[narrator]
Buddy was so disheartened

he gave away
many of the animals

to what would later become
Atlanta City Zoo.

His life was spiraling
out of control,

and something had to give.

[Butler] At some point,
late 30s, early 1940s...

he has this realization

that he's an alcoholic

and he can't
live like this anymore.
And he decided

to get right with God.

All evidence
points to him successfully

giving up alcohol completely.

So he spent that latter part
of his life completely sober.

But by then,
much of the damage
had already been done

to his health
and his finances.

[Alexis Pedrick] In 1947,
he was, by his standards,
short of cash.

And so he was forced
to sell off Briarcliff.

You know, according to
those who knew him,

it was a pretty crushing blow
for him to give up
his beloved mansion.

[narrator] Six years later,
in 1953,

Buddie died from liver cancer
at the age of 72.

[Alicia Gutierrez-Romine]
The irony is that
Buddie's Mansion ended up

turning into Georgia's first
alcohol addiction
treatment center,

and it functioned
in that capacity
through the 1980s.

After that, it was abandoned.

In 1998, Emory University
purchased the 42-acre estate

that included Buddie's Mansion
from the Atlanta government.

[narrator]
Now a multimillion dollar
renovation is in the works.

Gary Hawk is
Emory University's historian.

[Gary Hawk]
Given the importance
of the Candler family

to the development
of modern Atlanta,

I think it's really vital
to preserve the building
as it is and to restore it

perhaps as it once was.

[narrator]
In County Limerick, Ireland,
stands a fallen symbol

of the nation's
troubled history.

[Sascha Auerbach]
What we see is a patchwork
of fields with cattle grazing.

It's quiet, idyllic,

a picturesque part
of the Irish countryside.

[Dominic Selwood]
But right at the center
of it all

is an unusual,
imposing structure.

It could be a ruined
Roman temple,
abandoned for 2000 years.

But the Romans never made it
to Ireland.

Whoever built this
at tremendous expense
by the look of it,

didn't expect it to end up
in the middle
of a cow pasture.

[narrator]
Yet the sparse interiors
still retain a glimmer

of the property's
faded prosperity.

You can still make out
the outlines
of big baronial fireplaces,

big heroic staircases
lining up to a second story.

It's got corridors
and doorways everywhere,

with countless rooms
and underground vaults.

So this was clearly
.a stately home
of wealth and distinction.

[narrator] The actions
of its influential owner

made him one of the most
hated figures in Ireland.

He did everything in his power
to prevent the emancipation
of Catholics.

Inside this building,
policies were formulated,

decisions were taken
that would lead to, you know,

an absolute bloodletting
across the country of Ireland.

Little did he know
that he would end up
sowing the seeds

for the destruction
of his own home.

[narrator] In Ireland
are the dilapidated remains
of a bygone era.

David Hicks is
an architectural historian

with a passion for large
country homes like this one.

There were said to be
22 bedrooms,

five reception rooms,
a six-acre walled garden,

and what is very interesting
is the people
inside this house

had a huge influence
on the wider community,

a huge influence
on the Catholic
population nationally.

[narrator]
This is Mountshannon House.

It was bought in the 1760s
by John Fitzgibbon,

an affluent lawyer
and politician
from nearby Limerick.

The origin of his fortune
dates back to a time

when Ireland was a country
under siege.

[Professor Geoffrey Wawro]
In the mid-1600s,

the English leader
Oliver Cromwell led

a brutal crackdown
on Catholics in Ireland

after they had rebelled
against the British crown.

As punishment
for the uprising,

vast tracts of land
were confiscated

and given to British
Protestant settlers.

[Selwood] It also ushered in
an era of strong penal laws
against Catholics

designed to maintain the power
of the Protestant elite.

There was huge restrictions
placed on Catholics

in terms of
land ownership, education,

even the type of career
they could pursue.

[narrator] John Fitzgibbon
was raised Catholic,

and the only way he could have
owned an estate of this size

was by making
a great sacrifice.

[Hicks] John changed
his religion in order that
he could pursue a law career.

He was very successful,
and he died
a very wealthy man by 1780.

[Selwood] He never forgot
his roots, though,

and often defended Catholics
for fighting the penal laws.

[narrator] But Fitzgibbon's
son and heir, also named John

was cut
from a different cloth.

Being born and raised
in the elite class
of the Protestant ascendancy,

seemed to go
straight to his head.

[Professor Wawro]
And the curious thing
about him,

he saw the dilemmas
his father had wrestled
with being a Catholic,

and instead of that
filling him with a kind
of compassion

and understanding
for the plight of Catholics
in their own land,

it made him even more bigoted,
even more oppressive
than the English themselves.

[narrator]
Fitzgibbon Jr. rose to become
a powerful politician

and enforced his beliefs
without mercy.

He did everything he could
to ally himself to the crown,

always desperate to fit in
with the English aristocracy,

and spent his life opposing
Catholic emancipation.

[narrator] By the late 1700s,
trouble was brewing.

Irish Catholics,
increasingly frustrated

by the injustice
of the penal laws,
were beginning to organize.

[Professor Wawro]
There's Irish
nationalist groups

like the Society
for United Irishmen,

who form and say,
"Look, we need to,
like, unite together

and take our land back

from these
British interlopers."

[Auerbach] Unsurprisingly,
Fitzgibbon threw everything
he could at them,

outlawing the group
and forcing
its members underground.

[narrator] The United Irishmen
didn't give up so easily.

Inspired by the successes
of the American
and French revolutions,

they resorted to
an armed rebellion
across Ireland in 1798.

But after a few months,
British troops had
defeated the rebels

in battles around the country.

[Auerbach]
Fitzgibbon authorized
the arrest

and imprisonment
of the Irish without trial.

And resorted to
the most brutal torture
as forms of intimidation.

[narrator] Fitzgibbon's
greatest betrayal

of his fellow countrymen
was still to come.

[Auerbach] The rebellion
prompted the prime minister

to pass the Act of Union,

which formally incorporated
Ireland into the union

of Great Britain and Ireland.

[narrator] Under the terms
of the act,

Ireland's parliament
was to be abolished.

Yet many British politicians
felt the time had come

to grant Irish Catholics
more freedom.

But fearing that
more Catholic power
would ruin the country,

Fitzgibbon convinced
King George III
not to give his royal assent,

saying it would violate
his coronation oath
to maintain Protestantism.

And he is famous for saying
that the Act of Union

would make Ireland
as tame as a mutilated cat.

[narrator]
The bitter irony was that
Fitzgibbon's fanaticism

would lead
to his own downfall.

His rule in Ireland
was so harsh

that he alienated
even the British
who said, you know,

this is no way
to knit together Ireland

and the United Kingdom
with these kind of policies,

so he wasn't kept
on the government.

He returned to Mountshannon,
deeply depressed.

Call it karma,
but the next year he died
after falling off his horse

when he was riding
around his estate.

[Hicks] The people of Limerick
thought it would be
a suitable memorial to him

to deposit a number
of dead cats

not only on his coffin
but on his grave.

And this, I think, illustrates
how much this man was disliked
in the locality.

[narrator]
Over the next century,

the Irish nationalist movement
gathered pace,

fueled in part by the actions
of men like John Fitzgibbon.

It would ultimately take
a global conflict

to pave the road
for lasting change in Ireland.

The First World War halted
the passage of a new law
known as Home Rule,

which was meant
to give Ireland
more local control.

[Auerbach] In 1916,
militant Republicans staged
an uprising in Dublin.

It became known
as the Easter Rebellion,
or the Easter uprising.

[Selwood] The rebels
were surrounded
and bombarded.

Thousands were sent
to internment camps

and 16 of their leaders
were executed.

With this violent repression,
mainstream Irish opinion

turned strongly
against the British.

[narrator] In 1919,
the War of Independence
broke out.

The Irish forces united
under the banner
of the Irish Republican Army,

more commonly known
by its initials, the IRA.

The IRA only had
a few thousand men
and limited supplies,

so were forced to fight
a guerrilla campaign.

Their tactics included
ambush, bombings,
espionage, and assassinations.

And so it becomes
a really nasty war.

[narrator] The southwestern
city of Limerick
was an IRA stronghold

which made it a target
for British forces.

Mountshannon House
would be caught
in the crossfire.

[narrator] In Ireland
lie the ruins
of Mountshannon House.

By the early 1900s,
the property had been drawn

into the violent
War of Independence
engulfing the country.

The one thing to understand
in the political upheaval
of Ireland in the 1920s

was that a house like this
could be used as a barracks.

It sat within a demesne
of 900 acres,

so therefore,
from the surrounding area,

if anyone was approaching,
it could easily be defended.

As well as seen as
being an asset to some,

it was also seen as a threat

if your enemy
took control of it.

[Auerbach] With forewarning
that thousands
of British troops

were about to arrive
in Ireland,

the IRA set out on a campaign
to destroy structures

that might be used as barracks
to house these troops.

[narrator] On June 14th, 1920,
John Fitzgibbon's
once lavish estate

was razed to the ground.

[Auerbach] A band
of IRA volunteers
snuck into Mountshannon.

They planted paper and hay
around the building
and covered it in oil.

[Selwood] The house burned
for three days,

and a massive fire
could be seen from Limerick.

[Professor Wawro]
There's a real circular
aspect to the story

because the Mountshannon House
is burned to the ground

by the very Irish nationalists
that are basically
fanned into life

by the repressive policies
of this guy, Fitzgibbon,

back in the early
19th century.

[narrator] In 1921, a year
after Mountshannon
was destroyed,

the Irish achieved
independence.

The terms of the deal
divided the country

into Ireland,
which was independent,

and Northern Ireland,
which remained part
of the United Kingdom.

[Auerbach] Mountshannon stands
as a haunting symbol

of the turbulent history
of Ireland

and its long struggle
to achieve autonomy.

[narrator] In the mountainous
region of Saoufar, Lebanon,

an eerie ruin commands
the landscape it dominates.

[Luke Pepera] Up here,
there's a blizzard raging.

As you make your way
up the road,

the outline
of this palatial building
comes into focus.

The roof is entirely missing,
and snow is just piling up
on the top floor.

You can see
how well built it is

that even though
it's been empty
for many decades,

it still stands.

[narrator] Inside,
the now spartan interior

still retains traces
of a glorious past.

[Pepera] In one room,
there's a plush red sofa,
and a mirror table.

There's no doubt this was
a room for entertaining.

[Jim Meigs] In this lobby,
you see these two grand
curving staircases.

Clearly in its day,
it was a place
to make an entrance.

[narrator] In the beginning,
this was a beacon
for the rich and the famous.

In the end, it became
a tragic victim
of circumstance.

The history here
wasn't all happy.

These holes in the walls
look a lot like bullet holes.

[narrator] Carlos Haber's
family has been the caretakers

of this site
for almost a century.

Today he continues
that legacy.

[Carlos Haber] I've been here
for about 48 years.

I was born here.

I remember this place
with all its furnishings

when it was functioning
and full of life.

[narrator] The family
that Carlos and his ancestors
worked for

were one of the wealthiest
in Lebanon.

[Pepera] The Sursocks
are a Greek Orthodox
Christian family,

that have lived in Beirut
since the 18th century.

[Meigs] They became
powerful bankers, traders,

importers,
all sorts of businesses.

And, of course, along the way,
they acquired a great amount

of power and influence
in the political system.

[narrator] But this was not
the Sursock's private home.

It was an ambitious
business venture

intended to serve
society's upper echelons.

This is the Grand Sofar Hotel.

It first welcomed guests
in 1892.

Alfred and Michel Sursock
had a vision
for a lavish getaway

catering to the rich
and famous of the Arab world.

Their timing could not
have been better.

[Meigs] A few years
after the hotel opened,

the first railroad running
from the coast in Beirut

to Damascus in Syria opened.

Passengers could step
right off the train

and through the doors
of one of the most

luxurious destinations
in the Middle East.

[Haber] It had three floors,
75 rooms,

and there used to be around
300 employees working here.

There was a band
that played every day
from morning until night.

Everyone stayed up late
and was happy.

[Meigs] You know, you think
of the Middle East

as being quite
culturally conservative,

and much of it,
of course, was.

But Lebanon
was always different,

and this hotel really
exemplified it.

You had gambling,
you had drinking.

Lord knows what else
was going on
behind those walls.

[narrator] The hedonistic
mountain retreat
became the place to be

for fun loving celebrities.

[Pepera] The hotel
was a destination

for big names
across the Arab world.

Including the actor
Omar Sharif

and the Lebanese singer Sabah.

[Meigs] The hotel wasn't just
a place for nightlife

and for the rich and famous
to blow off steam.

It was also a meeting place
for political leaders.

[narrator] In the late 1940s,
the luxury resort hosted

a gathering
of presidents and kings.

The powerful group
would come to shape
the modern Middle East

and trigger a series of events

that led to disaster
at the Grand Sofar Hotel.

[narrator] In Lebanon,
the Grand Sofar Hotel
was once the height

of luxury and sophistication.

Yet a meeting of Arab leaders
in the 1940s

would impact the future
of this entire region

and play a part in
this building's destruction.

After World War II,
the whole world was,

in a way, reorganizing itself.

Borders that had been
established by European powers
were being renegotiated.

This is especially true
in the Middle East.

The Arab League was formed
in 1945 as a way
for the Arab states

to develop their economies

and coordinate
their political aims.

In October 1947,
leaders from Syria, Jerusalem,
Lebanon and Saudi Arabia

all met here
at the Grand Sofar Hotel.

There was a lot happening
in the region
that concerned them greatly.

In particular,
there was the move
to create the state of Israel

in a portion of Palestine.

[Professor Michele Mitchell]
In the smoky rooms
of the hotel,

they drafted an agreement
for an Arab army,

discussed a united
Arab currency

and, most importantly,
pledged support for Palestine.

[narrator] In 1948,
Israel declared
its independence.

In response, the Arab League
countries launched
a synchronized attack.

After almost a year
of fighting,

a fragile armistice
was reached.

But over the next 25 years,
hundreds of thousands

of Palestinian refugees
fled Israel

and sought shelter in Lebanon.

Tension between the Muslim
and Christian populations grew

until it finally boiled over.

When the Civil War
erupted in the 1970s,

every aspect of life
in Lebanon was upended.

Even here in Saoufar,
warring militias battled
throughout the town.

As the casualties mounted,
they needed somewhere
to house their wounded.

[Haber] The hotel closed
for winter
on October 15th, 1974.

In the summer of 1975,
the hotel was preparing
to open again.

Then the war came.

You can stop a soldier or two,
but you can't stop
an entire army.

They brought their injured
and dropped them off here.

They used to put them
under the trees

and then go out to get others
and bring them back.

Even now, those scenes
are still before my eyes.

I'll never forget it.

[narrator]
But the Grand Sofar Hotel
would soon be taken over

by another invading force.

In 1976, Syrian leader
Hafiz al-Assad
ordered his army

to move
into neighboring Lebanon

in a supposed
Arab League effort
to try and restore order.

The Syrians set up
their headquarters
in the abandoned hotel,

and as troops so often
do they wreck the place.

They stripped out the wood
from the doors and windows

so that they could burn it
to keep warm.

They even stripped tiles
to line and reinforced
their trenches.

[narrator] The Lebanese
Civil War raged on until 1990.

Syria finally withdrew
their troops from the country
in 2005.

By that time,
the Grand Sofar Hotel
had been destroyed

beyond all recognition.

[Meigs] The hotel
is still in the hands
of the Sursock family.

Of course,
it's a magnificent ruin,

but a grandson of the family
in recent years
has tried to restore it

as a site
for artistic exhibitions.

[narrator] Carlos Haber
is optimistic about
what the future holds.

[Haber] We now use
these rooms for weddings.

They've been held at the hotel
for the last four
or five years.

We have lots of reservations.

Thank God everything is fine
and working,
and we are not quitting.