All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S09E01.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[und]

[narrator] In Ohio,

a ruined neighborhood built
to keep the peace.

[Michele] This is a really
violent situation.

They want better conditions,
they want fair pay,
they want better housing.

[narrator]
An ancient ghost town
with traces of life.

There's people's belongings
left behind as if they had
just left recently.

[narrator] And a fantastical
world hidden in the jungle.

[narrator] And a fantastical
world hidden in the jungle.

[Jim] You see heads and hands
sticking out of the ground.

Stuff that looks like snakes.

It's almost looks like some
playground designed
by Dr. Seuss.

[narrator] Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In Ohio,
in the town of Campbell...

one neighborhood looks
different from the rest.

[Dougal]
Well, at first glance,

you wouldn't think anything
different of this place.

You've got some nice
green areas, you've got some
residential housing and so on.

But, you know,
most of the houses
seems to empty.

But, you know,
most of the houses
seems to empty.

[Michele] This is a place
that really looks like
it has seen better days.

That it once used to just
be full of activity,
full of people.

And now,
it just looks impoverished
and just neglected.

[narrator] But there's
something else that's not
quite right about these homes.

[Dougal] They all look
the same inside.
It almost looks industrial.

So it's at odds with
what you'd expect for
that particular area.

So it's at odds with
what you'd expect for
that particular area.

[narrator] Traces of protest
mark these strangely
uniform houses.

[Katherine]
Something has happened here.
It's not what it once was.

And you can't help but
wonder what happened

to make it reach the state
that it's in today.

It was really
a hot mess of abandonment
when I first came here.

[narrator] Tim Sokoloff
first came here as a teenager.

[narrator] Tim Sokoloff
first came here as a teenager.

Most of what we're seeing now,
you couldn't see,

it was overgrown, there were
trees and brush everywhere.

[narrator]
Beneath the undergrowth,

Tim found the houses
were unusually distinctive.

[Tim]
Everything was minimalistic,

you know,
there was no cabinets,
cupboards.

This was it.
You had a sink and a shelf.

This was your fuse box,
it's a Frankenstein switch

with two fuses that ran
the whole apartment.

with two fuses that ran
the whole apartment.

And here, you know,
we've got
an original bathroom.

And pipes all exposed.

Toilet with a tank that had
the connection. The tanks are
actually made to the walls.

And everybody looks here
and they say,

"Wow, how do you take
a bath in that tub?"

Yeah, little 4-foot tub,
cast iron.

[narrator] But
this neighborhood became
home to poverty.

And at number
50 Chamber Street,
events turned tragic.

And at number
50 Chamber Street,
events turned tragic.

[Tim] Two brothers lived
in this apartment.

They didn't have their water
turned on,

'cause they didn't want
to pay a water bill.

They would go dumpster diving
for food.

And, at one point in time,

a neighbor had come over
and knocked on the door.

And when the one brother
opened the door,

there were legs sticking out
from behind the door,

because the other brother
had just passed away,
and just, you know,

let him lay there.

[narrator] Poverty had become
the norm here by
the time the brother died.

But it didn't start
out this way.

But it didn't start
out this way.

These are the
Sheet and Tube Company homes.

Their story begins with
the establishment

of a steel mill in
neighboring Youngstown.

[Katherine]
Youngstown Sheet and Tube
was one of the great

iron and steel companies
of the day.

Remember it's
coming about just as

the Industrial Revolution is
growing in the United States.

[Michele] But it goes on
in the 20th century

to become larger than
Coca-Cola,

to become larger than
Coca-Cola,

larger than Heinz,
larger than
Johnson & Johnson.

It becomes the fifth largest
steel company
in the United States

and the largest employer
in Youngstown.

[narrator] But in 1915,

the company hit
its first major hurdle.

Europe was in the grips
of the first world war

and industries strained
to make materials for battle.

[Michele] The first world war
has a really
interesting impact

[Michele] The first world war
has a really
interesting impact

on industry
in the United States.

It ramps up demand,
and so it's actually
good for business.

[Dougal] I mean,
if you think about it,

if you're making
steel and iron,

war is when demand's
at its greatest.

For the
manufacturing industry,

it's a boom time.

[narrator] But while
the company was making money,

its employees were
facing a war of their own.

[Katherine] Working conditions
for these steel workers
was not good.

[Katherine] Working conditions
for these steel workers
was not good.

And then everything gets
speeded up when
the war begins,

the workers are expected
to do more
and to work overtime.

[Tim] There was no union yet,
there was problems

and they weren't really
trying to pay the guys

what they
should be paying them.

So there's a lot of dissent
that started the build.

[narrator]
Low pay and bad conditions
created a pressure cooker.

One that was about to blow.

[Michele] In December, 1915,

[Michele] In December, 1915,

500 employees walk out,
they put down their tools.

They want better conditions,
they want fair pay,
they want better housing.

[narrator] The labor strike
continued for weeks.

But after the new year,
events came to a head.

[Katherine]
On January 7th, 1916,

the strikers along with their
wives march up Wilson Avenue

to meet a group of
scab workers who were coming
in to try to take their jobs.

to meet a group of
scab workers who were coming
in to try to take their jobs.

That's when things
get out of hand.

[Tim] We're not sure
who took the first shot.

If it was one of the guards
at the steel mill,

or if it was one of the people
in the crowd,
but a shot was fired

and a riot broke out.

[Dougal] People rioted, they
looted some of the buildings,
burnt things and so on.

And the next day on the 8th,
the home guard had to be
called in to calm things down

and many of the workers
were arrested and jailed.

and many of the workers
were arrested and jailed.

[Tim] This is a Youngstown
Tube Hospital. For some guys,
it saved their lives

by getting right here to the
hospital before they could

bleed out or their injury
took their life.

[narrator] The riot
was a bloodbath.

[Michele] By the time
the dust had settled,

one hundred and twenty-five
people are injured
and three people are dead.

[narrator] Tensions between
employer and employee
were higher than ever.

So the company made an offer.

So the company made an offer.

[Tim] The new workers rioted
and burned the city
to the ground.

And the mill said, "This is
not conducive to our business
model, we can't have this.

Let's build them some nice
homes that they can live in
that will be--

Give them a better
standard of living."

[narrator] The company's
solution was to seduce

its employees
with unrivalled new homes.

[Michele] The housing was
going to be connected
to electricity.

[Michele] The housing was
going to be connected
to electricity.

It was gonna
have running water.

And so it was gonna provide
workers with amenities

that were not yet fully
standard in the United States.

[narrator] The buildings
were sold as homes
of the future.

But with the company's eye
on the bottom line,

these houses would have
to be built on the cheap.

[narrator] Following
a riot in 1916,

Youngstown's Sheet and Tube
was forced to build
company housing.

But they didn't want to dig
too deeply into their profits.

[Dougal] They came up with
an ingenious way
of doing that

by building, essentially,
pre-fabricated units.

They were going to construct
houses one next to each other
that were all the same.

They were going to construct
houses one next to each other
that were all the same.

[Tim] When this apartment
complex was created,

it stood for everything
that America stood for.

Strong, innovative,

powerful-- you know,
this was the epitome of
modern building technology.

[narrator] Entire walls
were cast in
low-cost concrete.

When they arrived on site,
they were assembled like
flat-packed furniture.

The buildings went together,
so when they
put the next slab in,

it slid right in there.

it slid right in there.

Into that one like
a lock-in-place kind of Lego.

And here's a section of wall,
this was actually
standing up against here

when I first came here,
and eventually,
fell over onto the ground.

And when it hit the ground,
it's so heavy,

that we heard it
all the way up into
the Union Square Park.

[Dougal] You expect cars
to come off a production line
not houses.

But here, they flipped
that around.

And they were literally
producing house after house
after house after house.

Very quickly, very cheaply.

Very quickly, very cheaply.

But in doing so, also creating
a community that was desirable

for the workers
to want to go and move in.

[narrator] The new homes put
an end to the strike action.

[Dougal] But that meant that
Youngstown were both employer
but also landlord.

So when something
was gonna go wrong,

things were gonna
go badly wrong.

[narrator] The company and the
neighborhood prospered
for 60 years.

But on September 19th, 1977,

the steel mill closed down.

the steel mill closed down.

5,000 people lost
their jobs overnight.

It's still known
as Black Monday.

[Michele] And this has
a huge ripple effect
in the community.

And when Black Monday happens,
it's sort of the first in
a series of plant shutdowns.

And so you have this
depopulation that starts

to happen in the late '70s
into the '80s.

When you think about the
decline of the Rust Belt,

that's exactly
what this moment is.

that's exactly
what this moment is.

[narrator] Over the next
few decades,

the Sheet and Tube company
homes slowly emptied

and fell into disrepair.

Since the 1990s,

most of the pre-fab homes
have lain rotting and empty.

But Tim Sokolov is bringing
them back from the brink.

[Tim] We just started couple
of years ago
renovating apartments

to try to bring the complex
back to life.

to try to bring the complex
back to life.

And this is one that
we renovated, it's finished.

And people
are just moving in here,
today as a matter of fact.

This was a modern marvel
of building and engineering
technology.

And it has a lot of history
here for our mills
and for our nation.

It's important to save it.
It could help bring
back the town.

It's our diamond in the rough.

[narrator] In the Highlands
of Central Mexico,

a series of concrete
structures hide below
dense rain forest.

a series of concrete
structures hide below
dense rain forest.

Everywhere you look, you are
just surrounded by this canopy
that is the jungle.

Then, as you drop down beneath
the canopy, you realize that
there are these strange

structures, dotted all around.

[narrator] These remains
are difficult to date.

[Jim] There are some things
that look almost like
Mayan ruins,

others that look
strangely modern.

[narrator]
Deeper in the forest,
this site gets stranger.

There are fantastical pillars
and stairs to nowhere.

There's a library with
no books and a cinema
with no seats.

[Jim]
You see heads and hands
sticking out of the ground.

Stuff that looks like snakes.

It's almost like some
playground designed
by Dr. Seuss.

It's almost like some
playground designed
by Dr. Seuss.

[narrator] What kind of people
left behind these
bizarre traces?

[Rob] I mean, what
are all these structures?

And what the heck
are they doing in the middle
of the jungle?

[Jim] Who would put in so much
effort, so much time,

so much money
to create this fantasy land?

[narrator] Zaira Linian
is the director
of this hidden sight,

[narrator] Zaira Linian
is the director
of this hidden sight,

which dates back
to the 1940s.

[Zaira speaking Spanish]

[translator] We are about
to enter one of the most
wonderful places in Mexico.

A garden full of magic
with natural
and architectural beauty.

It's known as "Las Pozas"
or "The pools."

[narrator] Las Pozas sits
in a densely forested region

[narrator] Las Pozas sits
in a densely forested region

of Mexico's
San Luis Potosi state.

And it was this lush,
exotic environment

that lured the creator
of this magical site
from a very different world.

[Rob] Edward James was born
in 1907
to a British-American family.

A very wealthy family.

And he was
a true British aristocrat.

[Alicia] His godfather
was actually
King Edward VII of England.

[Alicia] His godfather
was actually
King Edward VII of England.

And there were even rumors
that he was
his illegitimate son.

[narrator] Edward James
inherited a huge fortune
at a very young age.

[Jim] In the early 1940s,
he was drawn to Los Angles.

Eventually, he fell in
with a group,

that you might call bohemians.
They're almost
like, proto-hippies.

[Alicia]
While he was living in LA,

James decided he wanted
to create a retreat.

James decided he wanted
to create a retreat.

[Rob] He wanted to create
his very own

Garden of Eden.

[narrator] Edward James'
obsessions with exotic flowers

led him to Mexico.

[translator] He arrived here
looking for orchids,

on one of his road trips.

He saw the gardener

watering a large number
of orchids,

which he had never seen.

They were very beautiful.

[Zaira speaking Spanish]

[Jim] The orchid is
in some way
the most sensuous of plants

and that appealed to
James' sensibility.

[narrator] Las Pozas
was the perfect place

to indulge his passion
for orchids.

Las Pozas started off
as just two simple huts
being built

because James wanted
to focus his attention

on the plantation of orchids.

[Jim] He devoted himself
to cultivating

these thousands
and thousands of orchids
across his big plot.

these thousands
and thousands of orchids
across his big plot.

[Zaira speaking Spanish]

[translator] He began to bring
orchids from other
parts of the country.

[continues in Spanish]

He even brought in
from other parts of the world.

[speaking Spanish]

[translator] Everything
was going very well.
He seeded, he cultivated.

He experimented with orchids.

He loved the climate
and so did the orchids.

[continues in Spanish]

[continues in Spanish]

[narrator] But the nurturing
climate of Las Pozas

was about to deal
Edward James
a devastating blow.

[Jim] James was away on a trip

when a freak cold snap

hit the Central Highlands
of Mexico.

And that period
of cold weather

destroyed his entire
collection of orchids.

[Rob] When returning
from a trip to New York,

he was confronted with a very
unpleasant surprise.

he was confronted with a very
unpleasant surprise.

[Jim] You can imagine James
just discovering
this devastation.

It must have been
absolutely crushing.

[narrator]
But the catastrophic event

propelled Edward James
to create something
even more extraordinary.

[narrator] In the early 1960s,

in the rainforest of Mexico,

British nobleman,
Edward James,

was devasted to loose
his collection
of beloved orchids.

[Rob] James decided
he was going to create

his version
of the Garden of Eden.

but with concrete structures

that couldn't be destroyed
by freak weather.

that couldn't be destroyed
by freak weather.

[Zaira speaking Spanish]

[translator] He began to build
concrete shapes.

in the form of a leaf,
in the form of a flower.

In the form of an orchid.

[speaking Spanish]

[narrator] But Edward James
didn't stop at stone flowers,

he soon began to indulge
his other obsession.

[Jim] James came of age
in a time when some
of the most exciting

work happening in the arts
was the movement
of surrealism.

work happening in the arts
was the movement
of surrealism.

This is the idea of artists
trying to get in touch

with something deeper,
something from
your subconscious.

[narrator] Edward James
had been friends

with famous
surrealist artists,

like, Salvador Dali.

After the loss of his orchids,

he retreated into
a surreal fantasy world.

[Jim] He created all kinds
of fantastical shapes.

Everything was as if
it just emerged out of
some kind of dream.

Everything was as if
it just emerged out of
some kind of dream.

[Rob] This garden
was constantly evolving

with ever larger
and ever more bizarre

concrete structures
being added.

[Zaira speaking in Spanish]

[translator] There are around
36 main constructions here

that were built
over a 30-year period.

[continues in Spanish]

[translator] One of the most
iconic pieces in this place

[translator] One of the most
iconic pieces in this place

is the Cinema, otherwise known
as the Stairway to Heaven.

[continues in Spanish]

[Jim] He put seats there,
but no screen.

He was having fun.

[Alicia]
James gave these structures

really, kind of, unique
and whimsical names

like, "The house
with three-stories
that might actually be five."

[Jim] I think
that delighted him.
That having people say,

[chuckling]
"What the heck is this?"

[narrator] Edward James
found refuge in his garden

[narrator] Edward James
found refuge in his garden

at Las Pozas until his death.

[Jim]
James died in 1984

and you can imagine
this spectacular space

just being
reclaimed by the jungle

and being kind of
lost and forgotten

a bit the way
he might have imagined.

[Alicia]
The garden is a masterpiece

and a testament
to one man's eccentricity

and his desire
to be extraordinary.

and his desire
to be extraordinary.

[narrator] Today,
a dedicated foundation

takes care of Edward James'
surrealist vision

in the way he'd intended.

[Zaira speaking Spanish]

[translator] He said
many times that he would
like this place

to be taken over by nature.

[continues in Spanish]

[translator] He wanted
to give back to nature,

the space he borrowed.

[speaking Spanish]

[narrator]
In southwest Russia,

a mountain top eerie
hides in plain sight.

[Dominic] It's high
up in the craggy rocks

looking down on the eagles
soaring below.

And it's hard to make out.

And it's hard to make out.

[Lynette]
It's almost impossible
to believe

that anyone could have
a town in this place.

[narrator] But someone
has eked out
an existence here.

All around it
are terraced fields
fading into the distance.

[Sascha] Some people call this
The Machu Picchu
of the Caucasus

and you can really see why.

[Lynette]
But why did people come here?

Why did people settle here?

Why did people settle here?

Why?

[narrator] Among the ruins,
lie hints

of a conflicted past.

[Sascha]
There is people's belongings
left behind,

as if they had
just left recently.

[Lynette]
It looks like a town
but there is no movement.

No vehicles. No people.

This is a ghost town.

[narrator]
Badgered defenses suggest

this was once
a hilltop bastion.

this was once
a hilltop bastion.

So what happened to the people

who once defended it?

[narrator] In the faraway
region of Dagestan,

in Russia's
Caucasus mountains,

local conservationist,
Zaur Tsokolov,

is keen to preserve
the deserted settlement

of Gamsutl.

[translator] We are now
at an altitude of about
1,700 meters above sea level.

[translator] We are now
at an altitude of about
1,700 meters above sea level.

Mountains surround
this place.

[narrator] At the end
of the 20th Century,

Gamustl was still inhabited.

Zaur remembers
its last resident.

A beekeeper.

[translator] We met
the last man to live here,

right here, in his house.

At this table, he treated us
to honey made in his hives.

At this table, he treated us
to honey made in his hives.

[speaking Russian]

[continues in Russian]

[translator]
And according to him,
this house is 300 years old.

[speaking Russian]

[narrator]
For thousands of years,

Zaur's ancestors lived
in this brutal terrain.

[Lynette]
This is a part of the world

which has a history dominated

by warring tribes

by warring tribes

and people
who feel endangered.

[narrator] Dagestan
has long been

a geopolitical flashpoint.

[Sascha]
Dagestan is 19,000 sq. miles.

It has a population
of about 3.1 million.

But it's a very,
very diverse area.

[narrator] The people
who lived in Gamsutl

belonged to a tribe
of elite highland warriors

belonged to a tribe
of elite highland warriors

known as the Avars.

And there are signs
of conflict everywhere.

[speaking Russian]

[translator] Every Avar
knows that
his ancestors fought

in one battle or another.

And all the names
of these warriors

are passed on from one
generation to the next.

[continues in Russian]

[speaking Russian]

[translator] Gravestones
like this one

[translator] Gravestones
like this one

were made to honor those
who died in foreign lands.

They are memorials
to our soldiers who died
in faraway battles.

And they're decorated
with war symbols,
like guns and knives.

[continues in Russian]

[narrator]
The position of Gamsutl

is another sure sign

that this once
a contested battleground.

[Dominic] From here,
from this eagle's nest,

with its series
of watchtowers and droppages

with its series
of watchtowers and droppages

and above all, visibility,

this was place that really
could be defended.

[Zaur speaking Russian]

[translator]
This high ground in Gamsutl

was used as a natural tower.

They made use
of the rock formation.

[continues speaking Russian]

[translator] A battlement
was built on top of the rock

and then guards
would have
patrolled it up here.

[continues in Russian]

[narrator] So who
or what was the threat?

Originally,
Dagestan lay between

the Christian
and Muslim worlds.

By the 18th Century,

the domineering
Islamic Persian Empire

wanted to take control
of villages like Gamsutl.

But the Persians
underestimated the skills

of the Avar warriors

and their new leader,

Ibrahim of Urada.

Ibrahim of Urada.

[Dominic] Ibrahim
was at larger
than life character.

He was aggressive.
He was provocative.

He was a formidable
military and political leader.

[narrator] But Ibrahim
had few means

to stop the warmongering
Iranian leader, Nader Shah,

who had the might
of the Persian Empire
behind him.

[Lynette] Nader Shah
is seeking to expand
the territory

that he controls

that he controls

and the area from which
he can draw revenue

and he does that by fighting.

And continuously fighting.

[Sascha]
He's sometimes called

the Napoleon of Persia.

[narrator] Nader Shah
was determined

to take control of Dagestan.

So with the full force

of the mighty Persian
bearing down on them,

how could the Avar warrior

save their ancestral home?

[narrator]
In the 18th Century,

the Avar warriors

of Dagestan's hilltop villages

were threatened
by the powerful
Persian Empire.

But the first problem
the Avar leader faced

was to stop
the highland tribes

fighting between themselves.

[Lynette] What he's got
to be able to do
is build a coalition

[Lynette] What he's got
to be able to do
is build a coalition

who are willing to put aside

their constant state

of internecine warfare

and join in a common cause

to resist Persian domination.

[narrator] Against the odds,

Ibrahim of Urada
managed to convince

the squabbling highlanders

to create a united front.

[Sascha] There were penalties
for not

cooperating with
this agreement.

cooperating with
this agreement.

So for example, if a village
failed to contribute,

they were fined
100 sheep,

which is significant
in this period.

In the end, he assembled
an army of 11,000 men,

ready to face the Shah.

[narrator] 1741,
battle commenced.

[translator]
Military clashes took place

in front of where
we're standing right now.

They were fought
in front of Gamsutl.

[Dominic] When the war
was finally fought,

[Dominic] When the war
was finally fought,

it erupted across a front
that was tens of miles long.

But more important
than number of troops
in an area like this,

is familiarity and intimacy
with the terrain.

And the Dagestanis had that.

[Lynette] Ibrahim
and his tribes

have a massive

homefield advantage.

[narrator] The unlikely
confederation of Avars

took Nadir Shah by surprise.

[translator] Nadir Shah
was defeated here

and had to flee that way
to the north.

[Dominic] Rumor has it
that he left his vast
treasures of his campaign gold

here in the mountains.

And there are still
treasure hunters
who come looking for it.

[narrator] Following
his victory,

Ibrahim became famous
as a Muslim scholar

while Nadir Shah
was later assassinated
by his own people.

while Nadir Shah
was later assassinated
by his own people.

The Avars survived
in Gamsutl
for the next 200 years

until the Russian communists
arrived in the 20th century.

The Soviets did their best

to squash
the Avars' fighting spirit.

But in the end,
it was nature that won out.

[translator]
The last citizens
of this place

[translator]
The last citizens
of this place

described a torrential
rainstorm in the 1970s.

During that storm,
a bridge down in the valley,

which was the only thing
connecting the village
to the outside world,

was washed away.

[Sascha] It's simply
too isolated

and people leave slowly
over time

until in the end,
there was just
one person left.

And he died in 2015.

[narrator] Zaur is determined

this site that embodies
the Avar warrior spirit

lives on.

[translator] Every rock here
is steeped in history.

They hold
our ancestral spirit.

[narrator] Croatia's
glittering Dalmatian coast

is crammed
with tourist resorts.

is crammed
with tourist resorts.

But one stands out.

[Rob] The buildings
form this ghostly backdrop

to what should be
a picture postcard
holiday spot.

It's really quite unsettling.

[Lynette] We've got
a tourist mecca nearby.

This oughta be
prime real estate.

[narrator] An eclectic mix
of broken buildings

follows the shoreline.

follows the shoreline.

[Rob] Each building
is very different in style.

From brutal concrete
corridors and

square solid rooms to these

beautiful stunning curves
and elaborate archways.

You can still sort of detect
the original furnishings.

The wall paper.
These beautiful staircases.

[narrator] A grand
old building
at the heart of the complex

looks the most exclusive.

looks the most exclusive.

[Lynette] This facility
has got bars,

and restaurants
and courtyards.

[Geoff] Then you have these
more modern hotels

built in the 1960s,
'70s and even '80s,

built at clearly
at a tremendous expense,

that have all been
just left to rot.

[narrator] But this resort
has also been bombarded.

[Lynette] This place has got

evidence of large caliber
rounds being fired into it.

evidence of large caliber
rounds being fired into it.

Which some people
might call a war crime.

[narrator] These obliterated
structures

saw one of the bloodiest
conflicts of 20th-century
Europe play out.

[Rob] This place is a living
time capsule.

From a period
in this nation's history

that has definitely
not been forgotten.

[narrator] History professor,
Jure Maric,

crosses the Adriatic Sea

to visit his hometown
of Kupari.

[translator] For the first
ten years of my life,

I would come to
the beach here.

It was a pretty crowded spot.

Everything was packed full.

The beaches, the bars,
restaurants. Everything.

The beaches, the bars,
restaurants. Everything.

[narrator] Back then,
Kupari was one of Croatia's
most exclusive resorts.

And The Grand
was its first hotel.

[translator] We're entering
the ruins of The Grand Hotel.

It's really the starting point
of organized tourism here
in 1920.

[Geoff] The Grand Hotel,
you know,
was incredibly ornate.

Spiral staircase
up to the upper floors.

You know,
these beautiful rooms.

Great views across the sea.

So this was
quite the impressive
tourist destination.

[narrator] But the good times
didn't last.

[Rob] World War II stopped
tourism in this town.

But it wasn't the end of it
for good.

It was about to get
a second wind

and on a far greater scale.

and on a far greater scale.

[narrator] After the war,
Croatia joined forces
with neighboring Serbia,

its longtime rival.

Along with three other
Balkan states,

they formed
Socialist Yugoslavia,

led by the Communist
Josip Tito.

[Geoff] Tito has to assure
the loyalty of the military.

The Serb-controlled
Yugoslav army

The Serb-controlled
Yugoslav army

in order to maintain
the communist hold
in Yugoslavia.

So he decides,
among other things,

to create a holiday resort
at Kupari

for Yugoslavian army.

[Rob] Quickly, hotels started
popping up

all along this coastline.

Huge brutalist blocks,

iconic of the communist era.

[translator] It used to be
much bigger than it is now.

Over there, The Kupari Hotel
and The Pelegrin Hotel

used to be connected
by an adjoining hall.

When the resorts of Kupari
was governed by
Yugoslav People's Army,

it was open to the public.

I remember that
there was no problem
with us coming to play

and swim here
when I was a kid.

[narrator] Tito spent
more than
half a billion dollars

in today's money

in today's money

to create
this exclusive resort.

But how long could he ensure
peace in the Balkans

and continue to dominate
the sparring Yugoslav states?

[narrator] In the 1970s,

the derelict resort of Kupari

played an important role

in ensuring Yugoslavia's
communist dictator,
Josip Tito,

could maintain control.

Tito's Communist powers
forced a tentative peace

on this region
for nearly 40 years.

[narrator] After Tito died,

the fractious Yugoslav states

stayed together until 1991,

when the collapse
of the Soviet Union
coincided with the rise

of a ruthless Serbian leader.

[translator] At that point,
Slobodan Milosevic
came to power.

He wanted to seize control
over the whole of Yugoslavia,
not just Serbia.

[narrator] But Croatians
like Jure's family

[narrator] But Croatians
like Jure's family

were demanding independence.

[Geoff] The Serbs of course,
oppose this attempt

of these nations to breakaway.

And so a civil war breaks out
in 1991.

[Lynette] This spot becomes
fought over

between the Serbs
and the Croats.

And it gets very nasty.

[narrator] Kupari is just
six miles down the coast

from the strategic
Croatian city of Dubrovnik,

from the strategic
Croatian city of Dubrovnik,

which Milosevic's
Serbian led forces
were determined to take.

[Rob] Fierce attacks
and bombings
began in the city.

It became known
as the Siege of Dubrovnik.

[Lynette] They tried
to pound

the Croatians into submission

by shelling
the beautiful ancient

Croat city of Dubrovnik.

And just nearby,
there is Kupari.

[Geoff] During this time,
a small Croatian force

[Geoff] During this time,
a small Croatian force

holes up in Kupari.

So then of course,
the Serbs turn their guns
on Kupari

and they shell it
for six months.

[narrator] The Serbian-led
assault was merciless.

Kupari's grand hotel
took the greatest hit.

[translator] These are
direct blast hits, which did
most of the damage.

The enemy came in from the sea

and invaded Kupari
amid constant bombings.

The worst damage
can be seen over here.

Because the enemy gunboats
continue to bomb the resort
from over there,

including, of course,
this hotel complex.

[Geoff] The resort
was absolutely devastated.

And then when the Serbian
infiltrate came in to clear
the Croats out,

they cleared them
with phosphorus grenades,
burning them out entirely.

they cleared them
with phosphorus grenades,
burning them out entirely.

Leaving the place,

essentially, a gutted ruin
on a beautiful stretch
of coastline.

[Rob] It seems mad
that they'd completely destroy

what they themselves
had built.

But they were determined
to make sure
that there was nothing left

for the Croats.

[Lynette] By the end
of the bombardment,

this was no longer
a habitable place.

[narrator] It took two weeks

for the Serbian-led forces
to recapture the coastline.

for the Serbian-led forces
to recapture the coastline.

They destroyed 2,000 homes
in the process.

[translator] All those attacks
along the entire coastline

forced 5,500
out of the 6,000 people
living here to flee.

Our house was hit by grenades.

After we had fled,
after the municipality
had been occupied,

the house was burnt
and erased to the ground.

the house was burnt
and erased to the ground.

It's very hard to understand
what would have
motivated people to do that.

[narrator] The Serbian-led
occupation of Kupari

lasted until May, 1992,

when the Croatians
finally took it back.

Serbian leader
Slobodan Milosevic
died in 2006,

while standing trial
for war crimes.

And the decimated resort
of Kupari

has still not recovered.

has still not recovered.

[Rob] The level of devastation
here is horrifying.

And it's, basically,
sat like that ever since.

[translator]
For more than 30 years

this place has waited to see
better days.

To be returned
to its former glory.

[Geoff] But good news,
this site has been bought
by investors

and there are plans
to redevelop it
as a great beach resort.