All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S09E03.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[und]

[narrator] In Argentina,
a fantasy world built
by a desperate man.

Some kind of very obsessive
and very unusual mind
dreamed this place up.

[narrator] A sin city
locked in a skyscraper.

This looming tower
went from an opulent
apartment building

to a vertical slum.

[narrator]
And an ancient castle,

[narrator]
And an ancient castle,

the birthplace of a monster.

The superstitious population
saw him as a sorcerer

who had made
a pact with the devil.

[narrator] Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets
waiting to be revealed.

Near the Hillbrow region
of Johannesburg, South Africa,

is a dystopian ruin
with a checkered past.

[Prof. Michele Mitchell]
We're at the center

of one of the city's
most notorious neighborhoods

that are known for crime,
for violence
and that are blighted.

[Sascha Auerbach]
This looming tower

that dominates
the skyline of Johannesburg,

that dominates
the skyline of Johannesburg,

looks like it sprung
out of the pages

of a science fiction novel.

It's this massive
grey concrete tube

with this bizarre open center
that descends

right through the middle
of the building.

[narrator] Travelling
deeper into the dark abyss,

is an apocalyptic wasteland.

[Auerbach] The floor
of the central core is uneven.

There's still huge slabs
of bedrock there.

There's still huge slabs
of bedrock there.

It's as if they never
quite finished removing them.

[Mitchell]
When you go inside,

the building has a desolate
and dangerous feeling to it.

There are broken windows,

walls that are blackened
with smoke.

[Auerbach]
You can see from the flats

and the abandoned facilities

that this was once
a luxurious residence,

but something terrible
happened here.

[Nickolaus Bauer]
Some of my best moments
were actually lying down

[Nickolaus Bauer]
Some of my best moments
were actually lying down

in the middle
of this core here

and watching the clouds float
over the top of the building.

It was a bit
like a kaleidoscope.

Some days
it would rain as well,

and make it
a really, truly special

and unique experience.

[narrator]
Journalist Nickolaus Bauer

moved into this brutalist
concrete construction in 2012,

and lived here for five years.

[Bauer] This is
a truly unique building.

Something that you won't find
anywhere else in South Africa.

Something that you won't find
anywhere else in South Africa.

Some people say
it's got to do with the fact

that the architects took
too many hallucinogenics
in the '70s

when they put
this building together,

but it's actually
a municipal bylaw

that stated you needed
two sources of light and air
going into each apartment.

This was the most
bang for buck they could get

in terms
of designing a building

with as much
living space as possible.

[narrator] Dig deeper,

and the origins
of this ambitious structure
reveal a dark side.

and the origins
of this ambitious structure
reveal a dark side.

Its creation dates to a time
when the country operated

under the shameful shadow
of apartheid.

[Mitchell]
Apartheid era in South Africa

is a society
in which there are rigid,

rigid boundaries
between racial groups

in terms
of where one can live,

who one can marry,
what one can do.

[Auerbach] And access
to the inner part of the city

[Auerbach] And access
to the inner part of the city

for South Africa's
black residents

was restricted to those
who had work in that area.

At this time,
the only legal
Black inhabitants

for miles around,
were live-in domestic workers.

[narrator] Called
the Ponte City Apartments,

this was an exclusive
residential complex,

built for the city's
white elite.

[Rob Bell] If you lived
in Ponte in the 1970s

this was
the creme de la creme
of lifestyles.

this was
the creme de la creme
of lifestyles.

If you had this address,
you were part of the in crowd.

[Auerbach]
The three-story penthouses

that crowned the tower
boasted jacuzzies,

saunas, and patios
with a breathtaking view

across Johannesburg's
central business district.

[Mitchell]
Johannesburg was considered
a akin to New York,

as a sort of
a cosmopolitan mecca.

And Ponte City was supposed
to be the crown jewel.

And Ponte City was supposed
to be the crown jewel.

[narrator] Conceived
as a modern utopia

within the city,
it had a shopping mall,

a movie theater,
and a bowling alley.

The luxury facilities on hand
meant the 3,500
wealthy inhabitants

never had to leave.

[Bell] But these highs
didn't last for long.

Instead, this tower
started a long journey
into infamy and decay.

[Auerbach] Although Ponte
was designated officially

[Auerbach] Although Ponte
was designated officially

as a whites-only area,

the politics of it
were a little bit
more progressive,

and it wasn't unknown
for different racial groups
to mix in the region.

[Bauer] Throughout
the 70s and into the 80s

there were nightclubs
and dance halls
which had licenses to allow,

people of different races
to mix and socialize.

[Bell] Many landlords
found it to their advantage
to look the other way

when it came
to who they rented to,

since illegal tenants
would have little grounds to
complain about rent increases

since illegal tenants
would have little grounds to
complain about rent increases

or maintenance issues.

[narrator] The white-led
apartheid government

was appalled
by the brazen racial mixing

and acted quickly
to stamp it out.

What the apartheid government
decided to do
was to red line Hillbrow.

Now, red-lining
basically means

that the economic taps
get switched off to an area

and what you had,
very quickly,

from about
the mid-80s onwards,

from about
the mid-80s onwards,

was this rapid
urban degradation
of old buildings like Ponte.

[narrator] There was
no electricity, running water
or any municipal services.

[Auerbach]
Residents started to simply

throw their rubbish
into the central area

and eventually you had
a giant pile of trash
five-stories high.

[Mitchell]
What ends up happening

is what would be referred to
in the United States
as "white flight."

The white residents leave,

The white residents leave,

and crime moves in.

And so Ponte becomes

synonymous with crime
rather quickly.

[narrator] Ruthless drug lords
hijacked the building,

and a deadly new era began.

[Bell] The 14th floor
was ruled by gangsters.

And the floor above

became an informal,
sinister marketplace.

Whatever it is
you were looking for,

Whatever it is
you were looking for,

guns, drugs, prostitutes,
you could find it all there.

It was so bad
that when someone
was shot at Ponte

or when there was a crime
that was called in
to authorities,

paramedics and the police
would stay away
from the building.

You can't visit this building

and not have some sort
of impact on your psyche.

I suppose maybe that's why

for a while it was known
as "suicide central."

for a while it was known
as "suicide central."

A lot of people decided
to end their lives at Ponte.

[narrator] By the mid-1990s,

it had become
the world's tallest
urban slum.

10,000 people
crammed into a space

originally designed to house
a third of that number.

It was years before anybody
really wanted to touch it.

Ponte, the region around it,

it had some of the worst rates

of murder and rape
in the world.

Even after
the end of apartheid,

Even after
the end of apartheid,

Ponte remained out of control,
and it remained

a symbol of lawlessness
in Johannesburg.

[narrator] Ponte City's fate
was not yet sealed.

In 2001, its owners
decided to restore
the neglected building.

What they found inside,
was truly horrifying.

[narrator] In South Africa
is a tower of dreams

that turned into a nightmare.

For years it was overrun
by gangsters and pimps

until the building's owners
decided to clean it up.

In the process,

gruesome secrets
were revealed.

You couldn't get
heavy machinery in there

to remove
this five-story rubbish pile,

to remove
this five-story rubbish pile,

so it had to be done by hand.

[Bell] And reportedly,
there were 23 corpses found.

Now most of those

were rumored
to be gang murders,

and the others were suicides.

[narrator] It wasn't just
human remains and rubbish

that needed
to be removed from Ponte.

Every single drug dealer,
every single criminal,

every single sex worker
was moved out of the building

as the owners of the building
tried to turn it around

and make it
a decent place to stay

and make it
a decent place to stay

for inner city residents.

So it was around that time
that the owners of Ponte,

Kempston, decided
to enter into an agreement

with developers and turn Ponte
into its original incarnation.

[narrator] Today,
the Ponte City Apartments

are once again providing
a home to the people
of Johannesburg,

but transforming the fortunes
of this concrete tower

but transforming the fortunes
of this concrete tower

didn't happen overnight.

The years of neglect required
decades of restoration,

a process that still continues
to this day.

[Bauer] No longer
is it a den of iniquity,

it's become
a safe and clean place

for people to live
and really be safe from
a lot of the unsavory aspects

of inner city Johannesburg.

[narrator] And Ponte's
post-apocalyptic appeal

[narrator] And Ponte's
post-apocalyptic appeal

has also attracted

a very different
kind of occupant.

Its likeness to a Sci-Fi scene

has not gone unnoticed
by Hollywood

and several major films
have involved Ponte,

among them, District 9,
Chappie and Resident Evil.

[narrator]
In the mountains of Idaho

is the scene
of a deadly love triangle.

is the scene
of a deadly love triangle.

[Prof. Dougal Jerram]
So you've got this really
quite spectacular valley

at around about 6,000 feet,

which is kind of
surrounded by peaks,

some of which
are over 9,000 feet,

and a kind of icy river
running through it all.

It's beautiful,
but also quite a stark place.

While the summer
and spring might be beautiful,

You can tell that
the winters here are harsh

and you could probably
be trapped here
for a very long time.

and you could probably
be trapped here
for a very long time.

[narrator] Scattered
over 250,000 acres

are remnants of a community.

[Dr. Katherine Landdeck]
When you come upon
these settlements,

you see all different states
of buildings.

You see these obviously
handmade wood structures

in various states
of disrepair.

You can see these cabins

that have started
to fall in upon themselves.

[Jerram]
As you walk around the town

you can see
that some buildings
are really quite simple,

but others have
a lot more to them,

so there must have been
money to be made

so there must have been
money to be made

in this particular
part of the world.

And clearly some people had it
and some people didn't.

[narrator]
Deep in the wilderness

are clues to what drew
so many people to this place.

There are remains
of machines and tools
littered around everywhere.

So you can clearly tell
that this was part of

some kind of
mechanical processing project.

Something industrial,
something was being
processed here,

but it's not
exactly clear what.

[narrator] People came here
seeking fame and fortune,

but for some this would be
their final resting place.

but for some this would be
their final resting place.

The real mystery of this place
lies in its overgrown cemetery

and the vestiges
of three specific graves.

[Landdeck]
You have to wonder

what is going
to draw people together here?

What are they willing
to risk everything for?

And quite often
it's going to be money.

[narrator] 150 years ago,
this region was empty.

[narrator] 150 years ago,
this region was empty.

But in 1877, one man arrived

and founded
the town of Bonanza.

[Landdeck]
By the mid-1880s

Bonanza had over 600 people,

which is
a fairly large community.

They have several
businesses in the area.

They have a dance hall,
and a market place.

[narrator] It also
has its own cemetery.

Park ranger, Larry Gary,
has been trying

Park ranger, Larry Gary,
has been trying

to figure out the mystery
of Bonanza for decades.

[Gary] So we're going up

to what's called
a Boot Hill cemetery.

Back in the 1800s,

all three of these people
in the cemetery were shot,

but nobody knows
who did the killing.

[narrator]
Inside are the headstones

of a couple killed
on the same day in 1880.

of a couple killed
on the same day in 1880.

The number-one suspect
was Bonanza's founder.

[narrator] In 1880,
in the town of Bonanza,

a married couple
were shot and killed.

The prime suspect
was the town's founder.

[Landdeck] Many
in the community thought
he was probably guilty.

We don't know...
People in the community

certainly suspected him.

[Jerram]
I mean, we all know

from watching these movies,
we see the wild, wild west.

from watching these movies,
we see the wild, wild west.

I mean, but this was
really the kind of place

where it actually happened.

We're seeing
the remnants of it.

[narrator] Bonanza is found

in a region called
Yankee Fork.

The story of this place begins
in the era of the cowboy.

[Dr. Alicia Gutierrez]
Around 1866,
a group of prospectors

came to this area,

and they were looking
for mining opportunities.

The one thing
that they did leave

was the name of this place,
Yankee Fork.

was the name of this place,
Yankee Fork.

"Yankee" because
that's what they were

and "Fork"
because this place lies

at the fork
of the Salmon River.

[narrator]
It was in the mountains

of Yankee Fork
that a discovery was made.

What they actually found
in the mountain
was a kind of vein,

a two to three-inch
line or vein of material

and that was the actual
direct source of the gold.

[narrator] The discovery
of gold in Yankee Fork

caught the attention
of an entrepreneur.

His name was Charles Franklin.

[Landdeck] In 1877,
Charles Franklin decides

to go to this place
called Yankee Fork.

He's going to found
this town or city of Bonanza,

which of course,
grabs onto all that romance,

all that idea of hope
and opportunity,

to be in a town
called Bonanza.

[Gary] First,
he built a few houses,

hotels popped up
in these small communities.

hotels popped up
in these small communities.

They had to repair tools,
we have blacksmith shops.

There was other
little dress shops

and general stores,
butcher shops.

[narrator] By 1878,
hundreds of people

had moved into Yankee Fork,

but that summer,
a new couple arrived

going by the name
Richard and Lizzie King.

[Gary] A home like this,
more upper class, if you will,

was something that Richard
and Lizzie King built

was something that Richard
and Lizzie King built

and lived in,
and across the street

they built a saloon
and a large dance hall

where they held dances
quite frequently.

[narrator] The Kings helped
build the town of Bonanza,

but its founder,
Charles Franklin,

had eyes for Lizzie.

Lizzie was described
as this golden-haired beauty

and it was rumored
that she spent
lots of time with Franklin,

even when her husband
wasn't around.

And in those days
that meant trouble.

And in those days
that meant trouble.

[narrator] On July 14th, 1879,

Lizzie's husband fought
with a business associate

and was killed.

[Gary] Lizzie had
a real hard time
with the death of her husband,

but their friend,
Charles Franklin,

became even closer to Lizzie.

And everybody in Bonanza

thought that Charles Franklin
and Lizzie King
would soon be married.

thought that Charles Franklin
and Lizzie King
would soon be married.

[narrator] But Lizzie
was smitten with another.

[Gutierrez] She actually
ended up falling in love

with a car dealer
at the saloon
that she operated,

Robert Hawthorne,
and the two were married
shortly thereafter,

but it only lasted six days.

So they got married,

and six days
after their wedding day,

they had
a freight wagon come in

with new furniture
for the house,

few seconds later,
there was two gunshots.

few seconds later,
there was two gunshots.

The surrounding
townspeople showed up

and went into Lizzie King's

and Robert Hawthorne's house

to find them deceased.

[Landdeck] The rumor
that went around the town,

of course,
was that Charles Franklin,

in a fit of jealous rage,
had killed them both.

We have no evidence of this,
we don't know what happened,

they were obviously murdered.

[narrator] But one clue
might attach Franklin
to the crime.

[Landdeck]
When Charles Franklin

[Landdeck]
When Charles Franklin

had Lizzie
and her new husband's
headstones made,

instead of putting
their death date
on those headstones,

he instead put
the date of their wedding,

which had been
six days earlier.

[narrator] After Lizzie
and her second husband
were buried,

Charles Franklin abandoned
the town he once founded.

[Gutierrez] Obviously,
people were suspicious

that Franklin had murdered
Lizzie and her husband

in a fit of jealous rage,
but it couldn't be proven.

in a fit of jealous rage,
but it couldn't be proven.

[narrator] Bonanza
continued without its founder
for nine years,

but in 1889, the Yankee Fork
claimed another victim.

[Landdeck] Unfortunately,
fires strike Bonanza,

just too much
of the town is destroyed

and many
of those business owners

just move two miles
down the road to Custer

and Bonanza
quickly falls into disrepair.

[narrator] Shortly after,
the Yankee Fork's gold
dried up.

[narrator] Shortly after,
the Yankee Fork's gold
dried up.

The residents
abandoned the towns,

leaving the buildings
to nature.

Today, Yankee Fork is silent,

except for wanderers
who come to hear
the story of Lizzie King.

[Gary] Everybody suspects

that possibly Charles Franklin
may have done it,

but then again,
Charles Franklin

was so in love
with Lizzie King,

why would he kill her too?

why would he kill her too?

Why not just kill Robert?

Makes you wonder.

[narrator] In a suburb
of Buenos Aires,

a peculiar-looking town

appears to belong
in a fairy-tale world.

[Bell] It looks like
it's some kind
of medieval village,

and then as you get closer,
these strange details
start to emerge.

and then as you get closer,
these strange details
start to emerge.

[Dominic Selwood]
There are these
strange steampunk houses

with towers coming out
in odd places.

[Jim Meigs] It looks like
something that maybe

Willy Wonka
would have dreamed up.

[narrator] At ground level,
the mystery deepens.

[Selwood] Walking
through the many passages,

nooks, crannies
and secreted places

there's a really
intriguing atmosphere.

[Meigs] It feels
kinda like a film set

in that everything
is sort of artificial,

in that everything
is sort of artificial,

but it's built to last.

I mean, it's built
with stone and wood.

[narrator]
It seems so welcoming,

but apart
from a few stray dogs,
there was no one around.

[Meigs] Obviously,
it's not a place
where people really lived,

they are just big,
empty spaces.

There's no furniture.

This is an imaginary idea
of a town.

[Selwood] In many ways,
it's like a cartoon
come to life.

It doesn't quite feel
like it's the real world.

[narrator] One man
decided to build
the village of his dreams,

but it was built
in a race against time.

[narrator] Campanopolis
is a town like no other
in the world.

It was the life project
of one man.

[Oscar Campana in Spanish]
Antonio's vision
at the time

was very difficult to spot.

He was a very private person.

He used to say
he was building little houses
because he enjoyed it.

[narrator] The man
behind this enchanting place

[narrator] The man
behind this enchanting place

is Antonio Campana,

a self-made
supermarket millionaire.

His son, Oscar,
now looks after
the peculiar village

and has kept
his father's office
just as it was.

[Oscar in Spanish]
We are entering the place
where Antonio got inspired.

In a way, his space.

You can see here
one of the drawings

that was made with the pencil.

that was made with the pencil.

[narrator] The story began
when Antonio Campana

decided to try
his hand at farming.

Antonio bought this property

in order to acquire the land
and diversify financially.

[narrator]
But Campana's dreams

of a pastureland
were soon brought to a halt.

[Bell] The year
Campana buys the land
coincides with the start

of the Argentinian
civic-military dictatorship.

of the Argentinian
civic-military dictatorship.

[Meigs] It was
a very dark period
in the country.

It's known as the "dirty war."

Many people were
"disappeared", as the say,

they were just
taken off the streets
never to be seen again.

And the powers that be
appropriated his land

and used it as a dump.

[narrator] For years,
Antonio stood by,

unable to reclaim
what was his,

as the fields
were used as landfill.

as the fields
were used as landfill.

Yet some terrible news
would give him
the motivation to fight back.

[in Spanish]
A health problem would change
his life in an unexpected way.

[narrator] Diagnosed
with tonsil cancer,

he was given
just a few years to live.

[Oscar in Spanish]
That was the moment

when Antonio decided
to leave his job,

sold his companies
and started on a path
to recover this land.

sold his companies
and started on a path
to recover this land.

[Bell] So Antonio Campana
took on the fight,

and even though it took years,

he eventually won his battle
against the government.

[narrator] He now had to clear
70 million cubic feet
of garbage.

[Oscar in Spanish]
They gave the land
back to us completely ruined.

People used to come here
to pick up waste

and look for metal.

[Selwood] Campana
realized that the land

was no longer suitable
for cattle raising.

[narrator] Campana had to find
a new use for the land.

Campanopolis
is a hoarder's paradise.

And it feels like a window

into Campana's
unfathomable mind.

[narrator]
But exploring the town,

it is possible
to piece together the jigsaw
and find clues

to the method behind
the apparent madness.

[Oscar in Spanish]
What Antonio did
was to take all that waste

and instead of throwing it
inside a well,

he did what you can see now.

Decorating these pillars
with railway signs.

At the time, they were
ripping up a lot of railroads,

so he was able to get
a lot of railroad equipment

and other materials
from that process.

[narrator] But Campana
was thinking big.

It would take more
than railroad equipment

to fulfill his new ambition.

[Bell] Maybe
going through this ordeal
made Campana acutely aware

[Bell] Maybe
going through this ordeal
made Campana acutely aware

of all the waste
we accumulate as humans.

Maybe he just found
lots of treasures

as he was
clearing up the site.

Either way, his plans changed,

from farming
to creating a town

made from upcycled
and recycled materials.

[narrator] He scoured
the nearby capital

and found
a treasure trove of materials.

Much of it with origins
from farther afield.

[in Spanish] Big ships
would travel with grain,

[in Spanish] Big ships
would travel with grain,

and in order
not to come back empty,

they would transport things,
like railway signs,

dome roofs,

and bridges back here.

If you walk
through Buenos Aires

or travel in our country,
you will see plenty of things

brought from England
and Spain.

[Selwood] Campana was lucky.

At the time,
Buenos Aires was going through

a big boom of renovation.

And many
of the older buildings

were being knocked down.

were being knocked down.

People were selling off
a lot of the old features.

Architectural moldings,
gates, doorways,

posts, fence, so Campana
went around auctions.

His motto was
"Recycling and optimization."

[narrator] Campanopolis
was meant to be
a living epitaph,

but for a dying Campana
the clock was ticking.

[narrator] In the 1970s,

Argentinian, Antonio Campana,
was given four years to live.

So he decided to build himself
a fantasy wonderland.

[Oscar in Spanish]
And slowly,
playing around,

he started with a grid,
a door, with a window...

[narrator] By the time
Campana began constructing
his town in the early '80s,

[narrator] By the time
Campana began constructing
his town in the early '80s,

he was already years
into his terminal illness,

but he powered on undeterred,
trawling countless auctions.

Armed only with willpower
and a vision.

Campana didn't have
any background

as an architect or a builder,

but he did have
really big ideas

and enormous enthusiasm
and lots of money.

[Oscar in Spanish]
He just started to build.

If he didn't find
a door or a window,

If he didn't find
a door or a window,

he would wait
six months or a year,

he kept working
in another area.

Then he would build
when the materials
were available.

[narrator] The plan
was not to have a plan

and to allow the place
to grow organically.

And this is
sometimes reflected
in the architectural style,

or perhaps more accurately,
the lack of it.

When you open the door
to one of these buildings,

it's kind of like
opening a door in a dream,

they're not even really
buildings inside,

they're not even really
buildings inside,

there's no second floor.

It's just a big empty box,
like a barn.

And then,
some of these buildings
have these crazy,

I don't know if they're
chimneys or towers,

pointing off
in all different directions.

This looks like something

that came out
of the mind of Dr. Seuss,

not any kind
of normal architect.

[narrator] Year after year,
Campana continued

to defy the odds
and his prognosis.

[Meigs]
Fortunately for Campana,
his doctors were wrong,

and that gave him years

and that gave him years

to keep adding on
to his fantasy town,

kinda making it up
as he went along,

he would come up
with all kinds of crazy ideas

and send his builders
to work on it.

But over time,
he patched together

this really remarkable
little fantasy land.

[in Spanish] We used to
work long hours.

He made us work hard
when we had
to look for materials

to build something big.

We went through
a lot of stages.

When he was ill,

it was difficult
because it was terminal.

Cancer brings fear.

There were a lot
of new changes

in Campanopolis,
but it was very fun too.

We used to come
with family and friends.

[narrator] The 500-acre site

evolved into a beacon
of sustainability.

Campana planted 100,000 trees
to accompany the structures,

Campana planted 100,000 trees
to accompany the structures,

creating a thriving ecosystem
on land that was
destined for waste.

[Selwood]
Campana was a visionary,

not only for his own times,
but also for our times.

We are fighting battles
of waste and renewability
in the world,

but even back in the '70s,

he was able to conceive
an entire village

built really only
out of recycled materials.

Amazingly, there's almost
no plastic in his village.

Amazingly, there's almost
no plastic in his village.

He was a real pioneer
of sustainability.

[Selwood] In one
of those beautiful symmetries,

Campana didn't only
give life to the village,

but the village
gave life to him.

He was expecting
to die very soon,

but in fact lived
another 25 years.

[narrator] Today,
Oscar looks after

his father's legacy,
and has opened up the town

to curious visitors
and film crews

to curious visitors
and film crews

looking for incredible sets.

[in Spanish] I think this
made him find the energy
he needed to stay alive.

This kind of project,
having things in mind,

generally, makes you forget
about the bad things

and focus on the good ones
to keep going.

Like the majority of artists,
unfortunately,

he became better known
after his death.

[narrator] In central Germany,
at the top of a hill,

[narrator] In central Germany,
at the top of a hill,

is a castle
with a famous name.

[Meigs] You see
this ruined castle

looming over the hills

and it's hard not to imagine
ancient stories

that come to mind
once you hear
the name of the place.

[Jaega Wise] The castle
really uses its surroundings
to its advantage.

The solid granite
it's built on

acts as a protective barrier.

[narrator] Beyond the walls

[narrator] Beyond the walls

are signs that visitors
are not welcome.

[Selwood] Once
you're inside the castle,

your imagination takes over
because you can see

staircases, towers,
a ruined old chapel.

This clearly was
a very formidable castle.

[narrator] In the center
of the castle's grounds

is a structure
that can be seen
from miles around.

[Meigs] The thing
that stands out

most dramatically
is this watchtower

that was clearly part
of some kind of fortification.

that was clearly part
of some kind of fortification.

[narrator] A hilltop castle,
high above a dark forest.

A setting
for any good fairy tale.

There really can't be
many people in the world

who don't know
the name of this place

because it's the name
of a notorious
fictional character.

[narrator] This is
Castle Frankenstein.

[Selwood]
Approaching this place
is a journey of the senses

because to get to it,
you have to hike

because to get to it,
you have to hike

through a dense
atmospheric forest.

[Ralph Eberhardt in German]
Many fairy tales
were also told here.

The brothers Grimm from Hanau
recorded many legends.

[narrator] Ralph Eberhardt

has heard all the stories
of this castle.

[Eberhardt in German]
The first mention
by name of this castle

was the family Breuberg

who live in the super castle
of Frankenstein.

The family Frankenstein
still lives today.

They actually
do exist to this day.

[narrator] In the castle's
chapel is a statue,

but Ralph believes

this is not a member
of the Frankenstein family.

[Eberhardt in German]
Based on this sculpture,

he was 1.8 meters tall,

which would've been
much too tall for his time.

Why Dippel
was depicted in this way
is beyond my knowledge.

[narrator] He believes
the 5' 11'' statue

is of a former resident
of the castle,

is of a former resident
of the castle,

Johann Conrad Dippel.

[Selwood]
Dippel is born there in 1673.

He came from a long line
of Lutheran clergymen,

and his father very much
wanted young Conrad

to follow in
the family footsteps,

so he undertook
the boy's education

here in the castle.

[narrator] Dippel grew up
in the ways of the church,

but he also had
an aptitude for science.

[Eberhardt in German]
Dippel was intellectually

ahead of his time.

ahead of his time.

He often argued
with the church and claimed,
among other things,

that the Earth was a sphere
and not a disk.

[Meigs] Like many thinkers
in that era,

he was fascinated by alchemy.

The idea that you could
somehow chemically transform

a base metal
like lead into gold

or transform other things,

alchemy wasn't
just about making gold,

it was about this idea
of altering things

from a lower state
to a higher state.

[narrator]
An accident in his lab
produced a result,

[narrator]
An accident in his lab
produced a result,

a chemical
with a blue pigment.

[Wise] He actually shared
a workshop with a painter.

Now, the two's tools mixed

and this rich blue dye
was created.

[Selwood] Blue had only
been available before then

at massive cost.

So the sudden
availability of blue

that was scalable
meant it exploded.

The Prussian army used it
for their uniforms,

hence its name,
"Prussian blue."

[narrator] Prussian blue
raised Dippel's profile,

[narrator] Prussian blue
raised Dippel's profile,

but fame soon turned
to notoriety.

[Selwood] Dippel,
though, wasn't interested

in pigments and paints,

his real focus laid
in the search for immortality.

[narrator] It's said
that in the 18th century,

central Prussia
was shaken by an explosion.

It came from the tower
of Castle Frankenstein.

[in German] On the horizon,
you can see
the skyline of Frankfurt,

which is about
30 kilometers away from here

as the crow flies.

Hanau lies
in northeast direction.

[narrator] But explosions

were the least
of the locals' concerns.

were the least
of the locals' concerns.

It was rumored that a tunnel
connected the castle
to the village below,

and it was used
by Johann Conrad Dippel

in his scientific experiments.

[Meigs] It seems
like Dippel was someone

who often kinda freaked out
the people around him.

There's a lot of stories
about people being warned

about his experiments,
what he was doing.

[Eberhardt in German]
He experimented

and tried to find
the elixir of life.

His constant search
for something

and constant experimentation

did not suit
many people in the area

did not suit
many people in the area

who were mostly Christian.

[narrator] Dippel's
methods combined science

with the supernatural.

He searched
for a cure to death

by experimenting
on the living.

[Selwood] Dippel
was fixated with ideas

about the human soul
and its meaning.

And in order
to experiment with this,

he engaged
in soul transference.

In other words,
finding animals

and trying to swap one soul
from one to another.

and trying to swap one soul
from one to another.

[Meigs] He also had this idea

that if he could boil down
animal bones

and extract some kind
of essence from them,

he would have an elixir

that would be
extremely powerful.

[narrator]
After years of work,
Dippel had a breakthrough.

He produced a substance

which he called
"Dippel's oil."

He developed
this disgusting, greasy liquid

from this process
that he believed

was the secret
to a very long life

was the secret
to a very long life

and thought it was something
of immense value.

[narrator] Dippel's oil

may not have been
an elixir of life,

but as an insecticide

and a weapon of war,
it had its uses.

[Meigs] At one point
he actually tried
to buy the castle

by trading it for his formula,
for his elixir.

He also claimed
that his elixir

would help him live
to be 130 years old.

[narrator] But rumors
began to circulate

that Dippel experimented
on the bodies of people.

that Dippel experimented
on the bodies of people.

[Wise] It's said
that he had a particular like

for exhuming
dead bodies after dark

and he'd try and dig out
the fresher bodies

because he believed
it still contained

some of their soul
within them.

[Eberhardt in German]
Allegedly, there is
a passage inside the castle

directly to Breuberg,

thus the passage,
which is said to have existed,

could also be
for getting body parts.

[narrator] Rumors remain
about Dippel's research,

[narrator] Rumors remain
about Dippel's research,

but for all his efforts

he failed
to bottle immortality.

[Wise] Dippel died
of a stroke in 1734,

but some claimed
that he was poisoned

because he was so unpopular
with the locals.

[narrator]
After Dippel's death,

Castle Frankenstein
faded into obscurity,

but in 1814,

a young woman
traveled with her fiance

through central Prussia,
her name was Mary Shelley.

through central Prussia,
her name was Mary Shelley.

On that journey,
they stopped at Gernsnheim,

which is only ten miles away
from Frankenstein's castle

and you can see
the castle from there.

It's entirely possible
that she heard tales

from locals
and people in the party

of the castle,
and even possibly,

of some of its most
notorious inhabitants.

[narrator] Four years later,

Mary Shelley published
her debut novel,

Frankenstein,
or the modern Prometheus.

[Wise]
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

[Wise]
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

became one of the most iconic
horror novels of all time.

It's been in reprint
all over the world.

It was an incredibly
visionary piece of work,

especially amazing,

the woman who wrote it
was only 18 years old.

[narrator] Shelley's story
about a scientist

who made life out of death

mirrored the legend
of Johann Conrad Dippel.

To many, Dippel was
the original Dr. Frankenstein.

[Meigs] It's
certainly plausible

that some thread of this story

that some thread of this story

was something
she picked up along the way.

The fact that she used
the name "Frankenstein"

for her doctor is one hint.

We'll probably never know,
but it's certainly fun

to think
about that connection.

[narrator] Today,
Castle Frankenstein
is a tourist hotspot.

[Selwood] Inevitably,
there are local legends

that Dippel
still haunts this site.

Supposedly, he can be seen

Supposedly, he can be seen

sitting on the chapel roof
with his bones clanking,

hunting for the lost
entranceway

to his laboratory.

[in German] I've never seen
a ghost, but felt? Often.

More often I have the feeling

that there is someone
looking at me

or that the tower
is somehow creepy today.

An uneasiness
is present in any case.