Original subtitles

[narrator] A palatial ruin in Philadelphia,

built from the riches of an industrial golden age.

[Jim] All the wealth in the world couldn't protect him

from losing many of the people he loved.

[narrator] In France, a remote outpost

that threatened the lives of millions.

[Lynette] This is designed to be the hinge

on which the fate of Europe turns.

[narrator] And in Poland,

a power-hungry dictator caught in a twisted romance

at a fairytale stronghold.

[Rob] At first, the relationship was shrouded in secrecy,

but he was clearly happy with the bargain being struck.

[narrator] In southeast Pennsylvania stands the relic of an era

when the titans of industry ruled America.

[Jim] In the countryside just outside Philadelphia,

you see this grand neoclassical building

with tall columns and two enormous wings.

It feels like you could be standing in a grand European palace.

[Michele] But this is in the USA,

and we're pretty famous for not having a monarchy,

we dealt with that in the 1700s.

But if a royal didn't live here, who did?

[narrator] The man behind this ostentatious residence

was the very epitome of the American dream.

This was once the home of one of the wealthiest Americans of his day,

a man whose life was blessed with riches.

[narrator] He was also a man driven by a burning desire

to leave a lasting legacy.

It is truly one of the greatest collections of art

ever assembled in one location and probably global history.

[Natasha] But all the money in the world

could not save this family from tragedy.

That tragedy would involve one of the greatest disasters in history, the Titanic.

[Edward] I first found this place when I was 11 years old,

and it just awestruck me.

I had never seen anything like it before.

[narrator] In 2023,

Edward Thome headed up the group that purchased this property...

with the seemingly impossible task of restoring it to its former glory.

[Edward] We are now solely responsible for this building and its wellbeing.

Um, so there's... there's a great sense of responsibility

that comes with that as well.

It was so reminiscent of the palaces of Europe,

such as Versailles or Buckingham Palace.

It's not something that you're used to seeing in the United States of America.

[narrator] The origins of this lavish residence

began in a period of great prosperity

known as the Gilded Age.

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century,

the American economy was just in overdrive.

[Natasha] A few individuals made a fortune from the booming industries,

such as steel, railways and shipping.

[Jim] People like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie,

these were men who'd started out

from very humble backgrounds, even poor,

and became these titans of industry.

[narrator] Philadelphia native Peter Widener was one of those men.

He was born in 1834,

the son of a German immigrant bricklayer,

and began his career as a butcher.

In the early days of the Civil War,

he won a contract to supply mutton to the Union troops

within a 10-mile radius of Philadelphia.

And with that mutton contract, he earned $50,000,

which is about $850,000.

He invested that windfall in up-and-coming industries.

He was involved in U.S. Steel,

Standard Oil, American Tobacco.

[narrator] Peter also invested heavily in the American public transit system

and amassed a fortune in the region of $35 million.

Yet from early on, his personal life was marked by tragedy.

He lost the eldest of his three children, Harry,

to typhoid fever at the age of 15.

[Edward] The final blow was his wife passing

in 1896 due to an unexpected heart attack.

And at that point, his two sons, George and Joseph,

were living out on their own and building their own houses.

[narrator] Widener's grief would drive the creation of his most important investment.

[Edward] He said to George and Joseph,

"I don't wanna live alone for the rest of my life.

If I build a house large enough that we can all coexist,

then will you move in with me?"

And of course, they said yes.

[narrator] Peter's new family home took two years to build

and cost around $300 million in today's money.

By December 1899, Lynnewood Hall was complete.

[Edward] It was one of the largest homes in the country

and remains so today.

There were 44 in-house staff

and there was about 160 on the estate as total.

All the family portraits hung in here

of Peter and his two sons.

This leads right into the dining room,

which is where the family would spend a lot of time every evening.

They would sit around a giant table here in the middle

with, you know, Peter and George and Joseph

and the wives and all the children.

[narrator] Yet Lynnewood Hall was always intended to be

much more than just a family home.

[Michele] Widener had a particular affinity

for European old master paintings.

And he spared no expense in acquiring

some of the most celebrated works of his time.

This entire wall was covered with Romney,

Hoppner, Gainsborough, Reynolds.

We had two El Greco's here on either side of this door.

We had the largest private collection of Rembrandts

anywhere in the world at the time outside of Buckingham Palace.

[narrator] But Peter wasn't just motivated by personal pleasure.

His humble start in life also played a role.

[Edward] He was very proud of that and had a great appreciation

for this art collection and wanted to share it with everyone.

And they opened up Lynnewood Hall as a kind of museum to the public

for months every year for the grand price of 5 cents.

His son, Joseph, later said,

"Art belongs to those who appreciate it.

Others merely own it."

[narrator] Yet heartbreak continued to follow his every achievement.

[Natasha] Peter Widener had been part of the creation

of the very thing that would bring grief to his family once again.

[narrator] In the early 1900s, he purchased a stake

in the International Mercantile Marine Company.

Peter's son, George, was also a shareholder,

and he, his wife, Eleanor, and their 27-year-old son, Harry, arranged

passage on the maiden voyage

of the company's newest cruise ship.

This kind of travel was a huge part of the lives of America's economic elite

during this period. That was supposed to be

the most elegant way to cross the Atlantic.

[narrator] Eleanor, George and Harry were already in Europe

attending to business matters.

This journey would bring them back to America.

[Michele] At 6:30 p.m.,

on April 10, 1912,

they set sail aboard the RMS Titanic.

[narrator] Little did they know

not all of them would make it home.

[Jim] The officers of the Titanic

really did enforce this rule of women and children first.

[narrator] In Pennsylvania

is the former home of wealthy industrialist, Peter Widener.

The self-made millionaire had it all.

But on April 14, 1912, his life changed dramatically

when his family traveled back to America

onboard the Titanic.

[Edward] One of the things that's interesting to me

is many people are aware that there was a lavish dinner party on Titanic.

What's not known

is the fact that the Wideners were the ones who threw that dinner party

as a retirement present for Captain Edward J. Smith.

After the dinner, I believe Eleanor retired to her room with her lady's maid.

And the gentlemen, of course, went to the smoking room

for cigars and brandies and such.

[narrator] At 11:40 p.m., disaster struck.

[Jim] Of course, everyone knows the story

of the Titanic hitting the fateful iceberg

and the roughly two-hour period

when the ship was sinking.

[narrator] The vessel's officers enforced a strict women

and young children only rule in the limited number of lifeboats...

while the adult men were left to fend for themselves.

The Widener family had the experience that many families had

of separating right there at the rail.

It was a heartbreaking scene.

[Edward] George, you know, pulled his wife aside

and he took off a golden emerald ring and gave it to her,

and he said, you know, "Don't forget about me,

but I want you to do everything that we talked about doing."

Eleanor and her lady's maid survived.

George and his 27-year-old son, Harry,

unfortunately, all perished in the sinking.

[Michele] Eleanor and her maid made it home on April 19th.

There they found Peter distraught

with the news of the deaths of his son and grandson.

[narrator] Peter Widener was never the same again.

Overcome with grief, his health suffered dramatically.

[Edward] We've been told that Peter would come out to this balcony

and... and stare at the driveway, which is to our left,

just hoping one day that a car would show up

with both George and Harry in it.

[narrator] Only three years after the disaster,

Widener died at Lynnewood Hall.

He was 80 years old.

[Edward] The incident had such an impact on him

that his doctor even said that he died of a broken heart.

[narrator] After Peter's death,

the property passed to his last remaining son, Joseph.

Lynnewood Hall remained in his hands until he died in 1943.

After Joseph's death, neither his children nor his extended family

wish to take on the vast responsibility of taking care of the property.

[Jim] The Widener's fabulous art collection

was donated to the National Gallery.

Those grand rooms must have seemed

very empty when all those paintings were gone.

[narrator] Today, Edward Thome and his colleagues

at the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation

are working hard to keep Peter Widener's story alive...

and to realize his dream of making his home accessible to all.

When you have a building of this significance,

not just in its design but its history,

it is so important to share it with the community moving forward.

The goal is to, again, open it to the public as a cultural center,

art museum and a recreational venue.

[narrator] In northern France

is an ominous collection of buildings

intended to decide the fate of Europe.

[Luke] It almost feels like an entire town

is laid out next to the railway,

but there are no houses or shops to speak of.

So what is this place?

[Lynette] This construction is low, it's close to the ground.

Whoever built these buildings did not want them to be seen.

The style of architecture tells us that this was not created

for the sake of pleasure or comfort.

[narrator] When the world was plunged into the chaos of conflict,

these structures were designed to oversee the glorious victory of a cruel regime.

The blood of hundreds, if not thousands

of slave laborers is cast in this concrete.

We can smell the evil of Nazi construction.

[Onyeka] Hitler had so much hubris that he believed that from here,

he would witness the downfall of Britain.

[narrator] Yet in the dying days of the war,

the men stationed here received chilling new instructions.

[Lynette] An order comes off the teleprinter

that could result in the deaths of thousands.

[Didier] I discovered the site in 2007,

but it was forbidden because it was military land.

[narrator] Didier Lede was one of the first to explore these bunkers

when the shroud of secrecy was finally lifted.

[Didier] It took me several years of research

to discover the real history of the site.

It was as if I had discovered treasure.

[narrator] But this was a treasure with a menacing origin.

These structures date to a time in World War II

when the Allied Forces were being crushed by the Nazi war machine.

[Luke] By 1940, Germany had blitzed its way

through Poland, Belgium and into France.

Hitler wanted to stay close to his troops

on the frontline to give orders.

This site was supposed to be the platform

by which Hitler would oversee Operation Sea Lion,

the conquest of Britain.

In 1942, they set about constructing

the largest Third Reich headquarters

ever built during the war.

[narrator] The name of the complex catered to Hitler's vainglorious ego.

He called his new base of operations Wolfsschlucht Zwei,

AKA Wolf's Lair Two.

Hitler attached considerable myth to his persona.

One of those ideas was that he was a wolf,

a wolf like the beast

um, who inhabited German mythology.

[narrator] From the beginning,

its construction was stained in innocent blood.

Over a period of 18 months, 22,000 workers

worked day and night to build these bunkers.

We have prisoners of war,

prisoners of common law and forced laborers.

[narrator] By early 1944,

Hitler's command center, designed to orchestrate

the destruction of Britain, was complete.

Up to 3,000 men were based here,

although the Fuhrer himself had still never visited.

But its role in Germany's war effort soon had to change.

On June 6th, the largest amphibious invasion force ever assembled

stormed the beaches of Normandy,

just four hours away from this site...

Hitler's troops were caught completely off guard.

[Lynette] Hitler has got to act quickly

to halt the invasion of France on the beach.

But Hitler is indecisive.

[narrator] In France are the remains

of a Nazi compound

built to oversee the conquest of the United Kingdom.

On June 6, 1944,

its function was forced to change.

[Lynette] So, when the Allies land on D-Day, Hitler is in battle.

And nobody wants to be the one who wakes up the Fuhrer.

By the time Hitler's senior officers actually do get him awake,

the commanders find that Hitler doesn't know

which way to send reinforcements.

[narrator] After the Allied invasion began,

it took Hitler 11 days to decide to go

from Germany to Wolf's Lair Two to in France

for the very first time.

And that means that a bunker system that was built to prepare

for the invasion of Britain needs to become a complex

capable of commanding multiple army groups

to defend Nazi held France.

On June 17, 1944,

Adolf Hitler summons the generals and field marshals,

Rommel and von Rundstedt, to this bunker.

The conference that's going to take place in this bunker

is going to be very, very tense.

[Luke] Just as they were debating,

the air raid warning sounded.

Allied bombers were in the air

and the whole party scrambled into the shelters

deep in the hillsides where the meeting continues.

[narrator] At this point, Hitler demanded the V-1 rocket,

built to pound London into submission,

be used against the invading forces.

[Onyeka] He seemed to believe that this would act

as some sort of sword of Damocles

um, striking down the enemy.

[Luke] The artillery general advised it was far too risky

to send the V-1 to the frontlines.

These things were entirely unpredictable,

and he worried that they would kill their own men

if they fired them anywhere close to the invasion forces.

[narrator] The supposedly great Fuhrer

was visibly shaken by the general's reaction

and dismissed their recommendations

to retreat from Normandy and regroup.

After only 12 hours at Wolf's Lair Two,

he makes a feeble excuse to leave

while his generals return to the frontlines

to try and hold back the Allied invasion.

And Hitler appears not to be a man of great physical courage.

Hitler's response is, "I am in such danger here in France,

I am going to get back to Germany.

I'm going to command from someplace where I can feel safe."

[narrator] After Hitler returned to Germany,

he never again stepped foot inside Wolf's Lair Two.

On August 25, 1944, the Free French Allied forces

entered Paris and declared it liberated.

The next day, from the safety of his Berlin bunker,

Hitler would send an alarming message

to this base's communications center...

calling for the bombardment of the French capital.

Hitler gives a scorched earth order

to destroy the entire city.

[Luke] The order was received by General Hans Speidel

who just months earlier had been part

of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler

and take control of the armed forces.

[narrator] The residents of Paris

were completely unaware how close they came to complete annihilation.

[Didier] The general who receives the message,

who reads it, understands that Hitler is crazy.

It's useless to destroy Paris

who will have no military interest.

So he tears up the message.

He destroys the message.

[narrator] As the Allies advanced through France,

the Germans fled Wolf's Lair Two.

After their eventual surrender,

the U.S. Army occupied this complex

until 1946.

It then served as a NATO base

and school for French Special Forces

until it was abandoned in 1993.

[Dr. Onyeka] After NATO left, the site became overgrown,

and many of the stories of its history became forgotten.

[Luke] Since then, a local association

has worked to maintain these buildings.

And plans are underway

to convert it into a museum site.

[Didier] Last year we had 2,700 visitors,

and every year it increases.

It goes up and up.

[narrator] On the small Italian island of Procida,

off the coast of Naples,

is an ominous structure

that harbored aristocrats and villains.

At the island's highest point, your eye is immediately drawn

to this building that's commanding

and daunting in equal measure.

As you approach along the driveway,

you are met by these two large wooden doors.

But were they meant to keep people out,

or in?

[Sascha] Beyond the gates is a large, open courtyard

lined with stoneworks.

It's a demonstration of lavish opulence.

[narrator] When you step inside, the mood drastically changes.

[Alexis] You've got piles of shoes,

rows of rusting beds,

baskets of thread all over the place.

Maybe it was a factory of some sort,

but, honestly, it's just creepy.

Exploring deeper into the building's underbelly,

you can see a place that is even more unsettling.

[Sascha] That's when you see bars on the windows.

And there's the real giveaway.

Nobody came here by choice.

[Alicia] What began as the stronghold

of a really powerful dynasty,

slowly emerged into something much more sinister.

This building used to be home

to some of the most dangerous people in Italy.

[narrator] On the Italian island of Procida,

an imposing ruin dominates its surroundings.

My childhood was spent in the shadow of this building.

It has always fascinated me to imagine what was inside.

[narrator] In 2017, Luigi Primario

got the chance to find out,

when he became a city councilor,

tasked with the regeneration of this foreboding site.

What he discovered was a tale of intrigue and depression

that echoed the very history of Italy itself.

It was a very important building,

but at the same time

it was terrible for the island.

[Alicia] The oldest part of this palatial ruin

dates back to the 16th century,

when Italy wasn't the unified country

we know and recognize today.

The region was under the control

of the Spanish Aragonese dynasty,

who ruled over the kingdom of Naples.

Procida was entrusted to the d'Avalos family

who were an influential clan of Spanish dukes

who controlled a powerful mercenary army.

[narrator] In 1563, a prominent member of the family,

Cardinal Innico d'Avalos d'Aragona,

decided to make Procida his home.

He called his new island fortress

the Palazzo d'Avalos.

For the next century, the d'Avalos family ruled over Procida.

But their reign was dramatically cut short in the 1700s.

[narrator] Following the death of childless Spanish monarch, Charles II,

this region was caught up in a European conflict of secession.

The Spanish House of Bourbon, emerged victorious.

By 1736, the future Bourbon king, Charles III,

had conquered Naples and Sicily.

He kicked out the d'Avalos family,

and took the palazzo over for himself

to have a grand hunting lodge.

[Sascha] For the people living under Bourbon rule,

life couldn't have been more different.

These people were often under the oppressive thumb

of their feudal lords.

[Sascha] Discontent ran deep,

and it was only a matter of time

before that exploded into violence.

[narrator] In the wake of the French Revolution,

rebellion swept through Europe,

and the ruling Bourbons faced a series of uprisings.

In order to maintain rule,

the Palazzo d'Avalos entered a dark new era.

[Alexis] By 1831,

this, once regal, residence

had been converted to a prison

to house political enemies of the state.

Many tales depict this prison complex

as one of the cruelest in history.

[Alicia] The conditions inside were horrific,

and the prisoners often faced

beatings, starvation and torture.

[Alexis] For many, it seemed

their only option for survival

was to escape.

But they were wrong.

[Sascha] In 1848, around 140 prisoners

arrived on Procida from Sicily.

Reports suggest that they tried to break out,

but they were trapped by the guards,

and then ruthlessly massacred.

[Luigi] One hundred and thirty two inmates

were gunned down in the citadel of Terra Murata,

which surrounds the prison complex.

[Alexis] The event sent shock waves through Europe.

It's actually said to be one of the reasons that Gladstone,

who was the British prime minister at the time,

broke off diplomatic relations with the Bourbon monarchy.

[Sascha] Instead, he chose to back

the Italian rabble-rouser, Giuseppe Garibaldi,

the heroic revolutionary that overthrew the Bourbons in the 1860s,

and was finally able to unify the country.

[narrator] While the birth of modern Italy had arrived,

the Palazzo d'Avalos remained

a place of incarceration for the next century.

And soon, the prison needed to expand

to meet the growing demand of a particular breed of criminal.

[Sascha] In the 1970s, the prison started

to be overrun with Italian mafioso.

We're talking mob bosses,

hitmen, henchmen, the whole range.

[narrator] Giacomo Retaggio

started working here in 1963

as the prison's only doctor.

Over the next 25 years,

he got to know some of the prison's most dangerous convicts.

I would establish this empathy,

rapport with the inmates,

meaning they would never say no to me.

The secret is to acquire the mindset

and the needs of an inmate.

[narrator] In 1982,

this included Naples' public enemy number one,

Camorra Mafia boss, Luigi 'the King' Giuliano.

Luigi headed up the powerful Giuliano clan,

which had a reputation for being one of Naples'

most bloodthirsty criminal families.

[narrator] At the time he was arrested,

Giuliano was in the midst of a brutal war

with a rival Camorra gang

led by Raffaele 'the Professor' Cutolo.

Cutolo himself was already behind bars,

running his empire entirely

from the notorious Poggioreale prison in Naples.

Luigi begged to be sent to Procida prison.

He knew that if he was sent

to Poggioreale prison,

where Cutolo's men were locked up,

he would face death.

[Giacomo] Luigi Giuliano was the boss.

But just like every Camorra boss,

he was a very likable person.

A handsome fellow with sky blue eyes.

He would send me coffee every evening in my office.

He liked to be a decent person.

But he still was who he was.

[narrator] But Giuliano was wrong to think

he'd be safe on Procida.

[Giacomo] Prison is a sewer.

You need to walk in the sewer

without getting your shoes dirty, unfortunately.

It's not easy.

[narrator] In 1982, Italy's Procida prison

welcomed its most notorious inmate,

the Camorra mafia king, Luigi Giuliano.

Luigi had pleaded to be sent here

to avoid his bitter rival, Raffaele Cutolo,

who was locked up in a neighboring prison.

But among the inmates at Procida,

was one of Cutolo's former henchmen,

and he had it in for Luigi.

In November, he was stabbed by another inmate,

and left for dead.

[Giacomo] I was at home and I got an emergency call.

And this guy who was imprisoned here with Giuliano,

to win his old boss's favor back,

had stabbed Giuliano in the liver twice.

He was about to die.

There was nothing I could do

other than stop the bleeding as much as I could,

and prescribe emergency hospitalization.

[Alexis] Luckily for him, he survived.

Not so lucky for Naples.

After he was acquitted of all charges,

he continued his reign of terror for the next 20 years.

[narrator] Giuliano was eventually arrested in 2000,

and turned into a government witness to avoid jail time.

But during that period, the aging prison here

had already been forced to shut its doors...

for good.

In July '88, they closed it

because the number of inmates kept decreasing

until there were only a hundred.

It was because of a certain campaign from Procida

where they blamed the prison for its failing tourism.

[Alicia] For 30 years, Palazzo d'Avalos

sat completely abandoned

until the government took it over

and made it a place that tourists could visit.

It's now become a place of culture,

a place that, truly, everyone embraces.

And an asset for the island, which had been forgotten.

[narrator] In the northern Polish town of Kamieniec,

is the ruin of a site

where romance and patriotism

painfully collided.

[Hadley] There's little houses and shops and a church.

It seems like a place where things move slowly.

But at one end of town is something quite unexpected.

[narrator] Set back from the street is a towering stone structure

ravaged by the passage of time.

[Hadley] It's got this big facade,

two wings spreading out on either side.

It seems like somewhere really important.

[Prof. Geoffrey] Central Europe is dotted with palaces, such as this.

But this one is remarkable because of who ended up here

and with whom.

[Rob] One of the world's greatest generals

was caught in a love affair.

For him, it was passion.

For her, it was duty to her country.

She carried the very existence of Poland on her shoulders.

But the question was, would it pay off?

[narrator] Tomasz Dabrowski is part of a group

dedicated to honoring the role this building played

in his nation's struggle for independence.

[Tomasz speaking]

[narrator] Its epic story began

in the early 18th century,

when this region was a battlefield

fought over by neighboring states.

[Prof. Geoffrey] We're in, what one historian famously called, God's playground,

Poland, which was at the intersection

of all the great powers of Europe.

[Rob] This land was under the control of Prussia,

a kingdom comprised of northern Germany,

and much of modern-day Poland.

Its king, Friedrich Wilhelm I,

bestowed palaces and estates

upon the noble families.

[narrator] This one was called Finckenstein Palace,

and it was named after the ruling family that constructed it in 1716.

[Rob] It would be the von Finckenstein's home

but also a place for the king to stay when he traveled from Berlin.

At the turn of the century, though,

it would host a very different set of guests.

[narrator] In the late 1700s,

50 years after Finckenstein Palace was built,

Poland was plunged into chaos.

European borders were rapidly shifting,

and this region was caught in the crossfire.

The great powers of Prussia, Russia

and the Habsburg empire,

set about on a devastating series of partitions

that really completely reduces the Polish state to nothing.

[Rob] The result of this was that Poland

was all but wiped off the map.

And if they had any chance

of restoring their statehood,

they'd need help from abroad.

[narrator] The Polish prince, Josef Poniatowski,

in cahoots with his noblemen,

devised a strategy

to save the nation from obscurity.

[Rob] The plan they came up with...

well, it's been used over and over again

throughout history.

A honey trap.

[Hadley] The prince and his officials

identify the perfect person,

and she's a countess named Marie Walewska.

Even though she was already married and had a child,

she was known, throughout Poland, for her great beauty.

The scheming nobles then set their sights

on an ambitious neighboring ruler

who could champion their cause for independence.

And at that time there was only one real candidate,

Napoleon Bonaparte.

[Prof. Geoffrey] They realize that Napoleon has a natural interest

in fostering Polish nationalism

as a way of weakening, you know,

Russia, Austria and Prussia.

[Tomasz speaking]

[narrator] The Polish plan appeared to be working.

When Napoleon returned to his European campaign,

he didn't forget his newfound mistress.

In 1807, Napoleon invites Marie Walewska

to the countryside, where he is resting

after another important battle.

As she arrived, she was greeted by the magnificent facade

of Finckenstein Palace.

[narrator] Marie understood the role she had been chosen to play.

But she was also conflicted.

She would have to choose between her family

and her country.

[narrator] In 1807,

Napoleon was at Finckenstein Palace,

preparing for his next battle.

His mistress, Maria Walewska,

arrived on a secret mission

to help her country achieve independence.

But it was one that caused her great distress.

She's very concerned about her reputation

because she's married, she has a child,

she's of noble birth.

[narrator] Napoleon was all too aware

of Maria's personal situation,

and continued the affair regardless.

[Prof. Geoffrey] So, they ended up holing up in a bedroom

of the north wing of the palace.

[Hadley] Marie had told one friend that she really felt

like she was married to Napoleon at the time.

But, of course, she knew she was actually...

in service of a much greater cause.

[narrator] That cause received a boost in April 1807,

when Napoleon made a deal with the Shah of Persia at Finckenstein Palace.

Napoleon's plan is to, basically, create this continental system

to close off all of Europe,

including the Russian empire, to British trade.

[Tomasz speaking]

[narrator] After the treaty had been signed,

Napoleon continued his war with Russia.

At the Battle of Friedland in June,

his army emerged victorious,

which forced the Russians to make a settlement.

This was the moment that Marie was waiting for.

The French are negotiating with the Russians,

and the fate of Poland is on the table.

[Rob] Marie had left behind her husband and child

to spend two months with Napoleon

in the hope his favor would sway his decisions.

But in the end, it'd all be for nothing.

[narrator] Under the terms of the deal,

Russia kept most of the Polish territory they previously held.

Napoleon, merely elected to form a small Polish state,

called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.

Poland's dream of true independence... was over.

[Hadley] Marie's mission had failed, and it was absolutely clear

that Napoleon would always put his beloved France first

over any romantic involvement.

[Rob] Napoleon made sure Marie was taken care of for the rest of her life.

But the affair was all but over,

and the hopes of the Polish people died with it.

[narrator] As the years passed,

Finckenstein Palace continued to be a home for wealthy nobility.

But during World War II,

it was looted by the Soviet Red Army,

as they advanced through Poland.

And in 1945, it was completely destroyed by a fire.

[Rob] Today, the site is privately owned

by a member of the Polish Napoleon Foundation,

and it became a shrine to a pivotal moment

in Polish history that unfolded

within the walls of this great palace.

[Hadley] The romance was even immortalized in a film

starring Charles Boyer and Greta Garbo.

And the film was called The Conquest.