All language subtitles for A.E.S15E02.1080p.WEB.h264-CODSWALLOP_track3_[eng]

A Spanish settlement
stained in innocent blood.

What begins as an unpleasant scheme
leads to bodies lying in the dust.

In Wisconsin, a tranquil institution
consumed by righteous anger.

As the national guards
surrounded the area,

there were reports about the back
and forth shooting that happened.

An Albanian hilltop citadel
funded by one man's hubris.

This is an area of the world
shaped by strong men.

And he was no exception.

But with a spectacular rise
comes a spectacular fall.

And a subterranean lair in France,

designed with
a disturbing objective.

Hitler is convinced that German
technology can still win the war

and Joe Kennedy, heir
to an American political dynasty

is going to die on his way here.

In America's Midwest

lies an isolated structure
caught in the crosshairs

of a nation's mission
to reclaim what was once theirs.

Tucked away from the road
is a wide-open clearing

and in the middle of it
there is this colossal

Georgian-style mansion.

It's far too big, too grand to be
a single family residence,

but who built it
and why is it standing empty today?

When you go inside,
the stark concrete

offers few clues
to its former purpose.

It's bare and cavernous, like it's
been hollowed out to its core.

This was once a place
of religious devotion,

it would become the symbol of
a bitter struggle to be heard.

Some said that it existed
on stolen land

and that conflict would come
to a head

in a very dramatic confrontation.

This land is Menominee
ancestral land.

As a people, we've been here
since time immemorial.

On a cold January day,

a group descended on to this
compound with shotguns and rifles.

Their motto was "deed or death".

This was a month-long,
armed stand-off

and soon it gains
national recognition.

Suddenly, you had everyone from
national grass roots organisations

to movie stars, like Marlon Brando,
showing up to the protests.

Chris Caldwell
is President of the College

of the Menominee Nation.

His family was involved in the battle
that unfolded here during the 1970s.

My aunt Chris talks about
being in here,

ducking from gunfire, you know,

trying to make sure the kids that
were with them knew to duck.

It's been a process
to reconcile those things.

When this site was first built,

it stood on territory that had been
taken away from the Menominee.

Its original function belies what
would eventually transpire here.

This grand building was originally
constructed in 1939

as a private residence for
a wealthy widow from New York

and her sick daughter.

But sadly, she died before it
can be completed.

Then, in the 1950s, the woman
donated the unfinished house

and the land
to the Alexian Brothers,

an organisation that was close
to her heart.

The Alexian Brothers
are a Catholic group

devoted to religious study
and taking care of the sick.

And they turned the property
into what's known as a novitiate,

somewhere where inductees
would come to study and learn

and prepare to take their vows.

The novitiate operated like this
for over 20 years,

but in 1972, they moved
their operations to Chicago

and this building is left empty.

This could have been the end
of the novitiate story,

but events were underway that would
send it on a collision course

with an unfolding crisis

at a nearby
Native American reservation.

Historically, the Menominee
inhabited a vast area

that stretched across Wisconsin

to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.

But a series of treaties with the
US government during the 1800s

shrunk their land from
ten million acres to just 230,000.

Still, the Menominee remained

one of the wealthiest native tribes
in North America

because they had large interests
in timber.

But in the 1950s, their way of life
and land was threatened once more.

The tribe was doing so well

that the Bureau of Indian Affairs
decided that they were ready

to be relieved from federal
government support

and in the term of the time,

assimilated in to
mainstream US society.

The government establishes
a policy of termination,

which ends the tribe's
sovereign status

and changes the responsibility

that the federal government
has towards them.

With termination came
an instant tax bill

for the 230,000 acres
of our reservation lands.

We had to find a way to pay for that

and our communities declined.

It was a real disaster.

They went from being one of the
most affluent tribes in the nation

to being desperately poor

with all the social ills
that come along with poverty.

It just pushed the Menominee,
I feel, over the brink

to, we really need to figure out,
how do we get back our lands?

How do we get back that connection?

One faction of the nation felt
the only way

to get their voice heard
was direct action.

These were members of
the Menominee Warrior Society.

During this period,

the same political activism
that we saw on college campuses

and Vietnam War protests was also
sweeping native communities

across the country.

Many of the members
of the Warrior Society

were inspired by activist takeovers,

like that of Alcatraz in 1969.

In 1975,
the Menominee Warrior Society

decided to make their stand.

The target was the Alexian novitiate,
which had been vacant

for three years, apart from
a lone caretaker and his family.

The Menominee Warriors

saw this as a visible symbol

of land that they believed
was rightfully theirs.

On New Year's Day,
a band of about 40 Menominee

armed with shotguns and rifles
arrived at the compound.

They were led by a man they called
The General, Michael Sturtevant.

They seize the property
and they take the caretaker

and his family hostage.

The novitiate was now
under the control

of the Menominee Warrior Society.

The local police came out in force
and surrounded the building.

The Wisconsin state government acted
quickly to contain the takeover.

The last thing they wanted
was for the protest to spread.

Even the National Guard
are called in,

eventually growing to
a force of over 2,000 troops

and then, you have a standoff
at the novitiate.

The situation had become
a powder keg ready to ignite.

When the Wisconsin National Guard
was called in by the governor,

there are different interactions
between the Warrior Society

and the different local
community groups

and so there was gunfire
back and forth.

The Warrior Society is completely
outmanned and outgunned

and the government doesn't want any
deaths on their hands,

especially in this
already tense situation.

The National Guard had
one key advantage,

they were able to cut off
the power to the building,

soon the heat was out.

It was cold at the time
and supporters would find ways

to sneak into the building,
you know, bring supplies

and other things like that to help.

The actor and activist
Marlon Brando even arrived

at the novitiate to support
the warrior group.

Despite the celebrity backing,
local public opinion was divided.

In the surrounding white community
of course, many were outraged

by what they saw
as an insurrection.

Even on the reservation itself,

there were those who agreed
with this dramatic tactic

and others who thought that it
would undermine their chances

to have their rights restored.

On February 2nd,
after a month-long occupation,

a deal was reached between
the Warrior Society

and the Alexian Brothers.

The Brothers agreed
to sell the novitiate

to the Menominee for the sum of $1.

At that point, the Warrior Society
peacefully surrendered

and 39 of them were arrested.

Looking back,
we have to give credit

to the cool heads on both sides,

it ended peacefully
and with a resolution

that respected
the rights of the Native Americans

and did not erupt
in outright bloodshed.

Five members of the group

were charged
including their leader,

Michael Sturtevant,
who was imprisoned.

The Menominee Warrior Society
felt that coming to the novitiate

was a way to promote those goals
of the Menominee Tribe

and, in that way,
that activism, you know,

it also brought light
to the situation of Menominee.

In April of 1975, three months after
the novitiate standoff,

the United States government
restored the Menominee status

as a federally recognised nation.

This granted the Menominee the right
to self-govern

their existing 230,000 acres
of reservation land.

It's unclear how much this
occupation influenced that decision.

Despite the efforts
of the Warrior Society,

the Menominee were unable
to maintain the building.

Eventually, they decided that
the best course of action

was just to give the building back
to the Alexian Brothers.

Over the next 50 years,
the property sat empty

and suffered damage, including
a fire that gutted the mansion.

In 2021, the novitiate was purchased
by new owners,

who are busy restoring the property.

Its future is yet to be decided,

but the Menominee Nation
is being consulted.

It was only a building
in a moment of time

for the Menominee people,

but there's a lot of significance
that came along with it.

There's a responsibility
to both listen to our elders

and to learn the lessons
from those events

so that we can figure out
a better path

for our people
going into the future.

In Northern France,

tranquil, green fields disguise
a conspiracy

to lay waste
to an entire population.

We're not far from
the English Channel,

we are not far from Paris
but here, it's the country.

And then you look around,
you start to see evidence

that there's more here
than meets the eye.

There are huge chunks of concrete
that are really smashed apart.

What could have caused
these massive holes

in the quiet French countryside?

Nearby, an entrance
leading into the hillside

reveals something unexpected
hidden below.

Parts of it look like it could be
a railroad tunnel,

but as you look deeper,
it's a lot more than that.

The architecture
is very utilitarian

and it tells you that this was
probably a military facility.

Masses of concrete,

the smell of slave labourers'
blood and sweat.

This has got to be
Nazi engineering.

This subterranean complex was built

in a desperate bid
to save an evil empire.

The threat it posed was unlike
anything the world had seen before.

It was a race against time.

Could the Allies stop this weapon

before the Nazis rained
terror down on London?

In early 1943, things aren't
going well for the Nazis.

The campaign in Russia
is slowing down

and the Allies are gaining ground
in North Africa.

Hitler thinks that if he gets
German scientists,

German engineers,
working in the right direction,

they will create "Wunderwaffen",

wonder weapons and those wonder
weapons are gonna win the war.

On the 13th of June 1944,

seven days after the D-Day landings,

Hitler unveiled the first wave
of a new destructive power,

developed under
the wonder weapon programme.

They were called vengeance weapons.

The V1 was a flying bomb that buzzed
when it went overhead

and when it was about to drop,
it got totally silent,

meaning that the people below
knew it was about to strike them.

Four months later,

the Fuhrer revealed
the next stage of his plot,

to wipe London from the map.

The V2 rockets were essentially
the first ballistic missile.

They're going to hit
without warning

and at speeds that you just
can't intercept.

Hitler really believes that by
sending the vengeance weapons,

the "Vergeltungswaffen"
into England,

he is going to break
the British will to fight,

rob the Americans of their base
for invading France

and the Nazi thousand-year empire
will begin.

But the crazed dictator
still had one last piece

of his destructive puzzle
to complete.

It was called the
Fortress of Mimoyecques.

Caroline Albert is an expert on
this clandestine Nazi facility.

There were three really
secret weapons.

The V1, the V2 and here,

the third secret weapon
was supposed to be the V3.

And all these vengeance weapons
were supposed to destroy London.

Construction on
the site begins in 1943.

Over 1,200 workers arrive
to begin digging out those tunnels.

Despite all this natural
reinforcement,

they went ahead and put a 16-foot,
reinforced concrete top over it.

The Allies were completely unaware

of the ferocity brewing
beneath the French countryside.

It was basically a huge cannon

and it fired shells using multiple
explosive charges along its barrel.

The round goes past firing chamber
after firing chamber,

going faster and faster until it is
able to fly all the way to London

and bang,

deliver a payload right into
the centre of the enemy capital.

But this complex wouldn't house
just one of these super guns,

each of the five firing shafts

was meant to hold five cannons,
totalling 25 in all.

In theory,
it could fire 600 shells an hour,

24 hours a day,

London would have been
littered with bodies

and the city would
have been flattened.

The Allies had no idea
what was coming.

Yet French resistance fighters

spotted the sinister
building activity

and alerted British intelligence.

When allied reconnaissance flights
discover this space,

they're not quite sure what it is
but they know that it's big,

they know that it's Nazi and they
know that it has to be destroyed.

Between November 1943
and the spring of 1944,

British and US airmen fought through
an onslaught of anti-aircraft fire

to try and really take
this place out.

They drop over 4,000 tonnes
of armaments and it's still there.

Something else needs to happen
to destroy this.

The Allies turned to Barnes Wallis,

the brilliant engineer who was key
to the success

of the iconic Dambusters Raid
earlier in the war.

Barnes Wallis is
the guy who figures out

the bouncing bomb that can
destroy German dams.

Now, we need to destroy
a German concrete bunker.

Who is going to design a bomb

capable of penetrating the ground?
Well, it's Barnes Wallis.

He developed an extra large bomb
that was called the Tallboy.

It would bury itself in
the earth before exploding

and it would create an earthquake.

It was the perfect weapon
to destroy underground structures.

Throughout the spring of 1944,

the Nazis rushed
to complete the V3 cannons.

But before they could be deployed,

the skies darkened
over Mimoyecques.

On July 6th 1944,

the Allies send over
a hundred Halifax bombers.

They're carpet bombing
the target

in order to destroy anything
on the surface.

And then, the Lancaster bombers
are going to fly in

with the Tallboy bomb.

Three near misses
and then a direct hit.

With that hit,
they've managed to smash

through that massive
concrete roof.

This huge crater is due
to one Tallboy bomb.

It's about 25 to 35 metres large
to 20 metres deep, over there.

Despite this,

the Allies still feared
the site could be made operational.

They couldn't take the chance

that Hitler's weapon
could still flatten London.

US Navy airmen were tasked
with a top-secret mission

to take Mimoyecques out,
once and for all.

It was codenamed Operation Anvil.

This is a project designed
to take worn-out bombers

and turn them into
an early form of drone.

They would have pilots on board
who had set the explosives,

parachute out and the plane would
continue on to its target.

One brave pilot steps up
for the mission

and that pilot
was Joseph P Kennedy.

Joseph was the eldest
of the Kennedy children

and his father had been grooming him
to be president from a young age.

On the 12th of August 1944, he
and his co-pilot took to the skies.

Kennedy radios in
the codewords "spade flush"

to indicate that they were
about to jump out of the plane,

but then those ended up
being his very last words.

The whole plane goes up
in two enormous explosions.

There is literally nothing left
of Kennedy and his co-pilot.

It's said that when JFK heard
the news he said,

"And now the burden falls on me."

Less than a month after
Joseph Kennedy's tragic death,

Canadian troops
arrived at Mimoyecques

to find it had been abandoned
by the retreating Germans.

They also made another
chilling discovery.

The fortress had already been
destroyed beyond repair

by the earlier Tallboy bombing raid.

When Joseph Kennedy died in
the mission to Mimoyecques,

at 29 years old,
it was really for nothing.

Today, the upper levels of
Mimoyecques can be visited

by the public, but the lower levels
were so badly damaged,

some of the secrets of Hitler's
vengeance fortress

will never be known.

One thing Winston Churchill
is going to make sure of,

that this dagger pointed at
the heart of England

is never going to be used again.

36 tonnes of high explosive
are packed into this place

and it is blown to smithereens.

It is the mystery really,
underneath,

because nobody never went down
there since the war.

We still don't know how
many galleries there are,

if they are part of the cannons

or even the number of persons
who died here.

In a remote region
of southern Spain,

an isolated structure conceals
a story of forbidden love

and ruthless retribution.

We're in this landscape
of rugged hills and dusty plains,

it feels like something more from
the Wild West than Spain.

It's an arid, barren place,

even in the best of times,
eking out an existence

here must have been hard.

Yet, signs of life reveal somebody

settled in this
unforgiving landscape.

All the way out here,
there's this structure,

it's kind of hauntingly beautiful,

standing alone against this
vast, empty scenery.

Walking around, you can see a lot of
the rooms are just empty shells.

It's hard to tell what this
place once was.

Then you start to see clues.

With its bell tower
and raised area inside for an altar,

you quickly realise
this was a church.

You also get the feeling
that this is a home,

you've got the kitchen
and the pantry,

but apart from these details,
many of the traces

of whoever lived here
have long since disappeared.

In the beginning,
this was a peaceful dwelling.

It became the scene
of a shameful crime.

This place has been
immortalised in books,

in plays and even Hollywood films.

Grooms jilted at the altar,
lovers fleeing in the night,

violent confrontations,
this story has it all.

It's like the original telenovela.

Growing up as a child, I've heard
so many stories about this place.

The first time I came
was roughly 17, 18 years ago

and I was so impressed actually.

Miguel Jaume Mora
is a guide in this arid region.

Like many locals, he was drawn
to the tale of intrigue

that took place within these walls.

This building is well known
all over the country

for all its tragic happenings.

It is a very important part
of the local culture.

It's a shame actually to see
the state in which it is.

Essentially, it's a kind of
farm complex

common in the south of Spain.

It was originally built in
the 1700s by Dominican monks

and that's why it has such
an elaborate chapel.

They were given the property

because no-one wanted to live here.

Life here would have been
very difficult.

It was called
the Cortijo del Fraile,

the Farmhouse of the Fryer.

But in the mid-1830s, the government
decides it's gonna take possession

of many of the properties
that were owned by the church.

They sold it to raise money and
so the farm goes into private hands.

For almost a century,
the rhythms of life

in this dusty outpost
remained the same.

Farmers growing
and selling their produce,

living in harmony with the seasons.

But in the early 1900s,

a new family arrived at the cortijo,

with them came scandal and murder.

One of the families
that lived here

was a widower with his daughters,

Carmen and Francisca, who was
known to everyone as Paca.

Paca was given a cruel nickname,

Paca la Coja, meaning Paca the lame.

While the family
blamed her limp on polio,

it's said that the real story is her
father beat her so badly as a baby,

he permanently damaged her hip.

Well, we're just in
the house where Paca lived,

here at the farm.

This room was one of the bedrooms

and it could have actually been
Paca's bedroom.

Eventually, the elder sister Carmen

got married
and moved out of the cortijo

and Paca grew increasingly close
with her cousin Francisco.

She was in love with her cousin
when they were children,

the usual thing when they play,

"Well, you're gonna be my boyfriend

and when we're older,
we'll probably get married."

But Paca's father paid no attention
to her youthful infatuation.

And in 1926, he began looking
for a suitable husband for her.

Whoever she married would receive
a generous payment called a dowry

and would play an integral role
in the running of the cortijo.

As it happened,
Paca's sister came up with a plan

for who she should marry.

There was a local labourer
named Casimiro.

He just so happened
to be her husband's brother,

how convenient.

It seems like this was
all part of a sinister plan

to marry her sister
to someone inside the family

that they could control.

Carmen was very ambitious.

She wanted to try to gather
all the properties

and get her husband to be
the farmer

that was in charge of this farm.

Paca was completely unaware
of her sister's cruel intentions

and agreed to the marriage.

It was a decision
that ended in tragedy.

On the evening of the 22nd of July,

the year 1928, is the reception
of the wedding.

The tradition at the time
was to celebrate first

and then hold the wedding ceremony
the following morning.

All the guests started to arrive

and among these guests that were
invited to the wedding,

her cousin Francisco.

Francisco didn't come to celebrate,
he was simply biding his time.

Francisco seizes the opportunity
and he sneaks into her bedroom.

He begs Paca to run away with him,

so that they can be married
the next morning.

She never was in love
with Casimiro.

That's when she started
to think about it

and she told Francisco,
"It's now or never"

and that's when they escaped through
this passage to the stables.

The lovers believed
they will be long gone

before anybody realises
what had happened

but they were wrong.

Carmen quickly realised her sister
and Francisco had disappeared

and she was furious.

She told her husband Jose

and they got a horse
and soon went chasing them.

It wouldn't be long
before they found them.

It's said that they hid behind some
undergrowth as the lovers approach

and then they jumped out
to confront them.

Jose had a revolver,

he brought it out
and he just shot three times,

three shots and killed Francisco.

And apparently, Carmen told Jose,

"I'll be in charge of my sister."

Carmen begins strangling her
until...

..well, until she stops moving.

The murderous couple fled the scene

and left the bodies to be discovered
by the other guests out looking.

They found Francisco
dead on the floor

and Paca nearby,
desperately clinging to life.

At first, Paca was unwilling
to reveal who had attacked her,

fearing it would bring shame
to the family.

But she eventually identified
the assailants to the authorities,

who were arrested
and a trial date was set.

Her sister Carmen was found guilty
of attempted murder,

but she served
just 15 months in jail.

Her husband, who killed Francisco,

was sentenced to just eight years
in prison for the murder.

The events of that night were
a media sensation.

Newspapers across the country
wrote about this horrific incident.

The breathless coverage
also caught the attention

of a well-known Spanish author.

It inspired one of his
greatest works.

Five years on, Federico Garcia
Lorca premiered his play,

Bodas de Sangre or Blood Wedding.

The play opens
to nationwide acclaim

and to this day,
it's performed around the world.

And the story of
the terrible events that took place

on this farmstead are immortalised.

Paca died in 1987.

She never spoke about what happened
at this remote farm.

She lived out her days as a recluse
in a house near the cortijo.

She never married again

and it's said she wore black
for the rest of her life,

in mourning for her true love,
Francisco.

After the events of the blood
wedding faded into the past,

life at the cortijo
returned to normal.

Yet that all changed in the 1960s.

This is the age of
the spaghetti westerns,

western movies with Italian
directors, great soundtracks

and they're filmed in Italy
and Spain.

Of all the spaghetti western
directors,

none is more famous than
Sergio Leone

and his iconic Dollars trilogy.

The cortijo would be chosen to play
a key role in two of those movies,

1965's For a Few Dollars More

and The Good, The Bad
and The Ugly in 1966,

both starring Clint Eastwood.

It's even said that
the harsh Almeria sun

was so bright it forced Eastwood
to keep his eyes half-closed,

giving rise to that famous,
intense, gimlet stare.

But its fame couldn't save it
from decay

and the abandoned farm
slowly descends into ruin.

On the Albanian coast,
stands the faded icon of an era

ruled by Europe's most
obscure dynasty.

Perched on a hillside
is one building

that looks weirdly out of time.
It's neither ancient nor modern.

It could be, from some angles,
a mid-century hotel,

but it also has the aspect
of kind of a Moorish palace.

The inside is just as stunning.

The ceilings are adorned
with ornate plaster

and the staircases
are solid marble.

This was clearly built to impress.

The man behind this hilltop citadel

was infamous for his iron will.

Respected and feared
in equal measure.

He was considered a traitor,
a dictator

and one of the most
important politicians

of the country during
the 20th century.

His extravagance and his hubris
brought in great wealth.

It's what built places like this.

But with a spectacular rise
comes a spectacular fall.

Andi Pinari is a state historian

and expert on the period
in Albanian history,

where one man
revolutionised the country.

I mean, mixed feelings in here,

visiting the entrance
of this beautiful villa...

..cos it reminds us of
a time when aristocracy

and nobility managed
to control the country.

It belongs to the most
powerful man of the period.

In the early 20th century,
Ahmed Zogolli

was a regional governor
in northern Albania.

But his ambition stretched
far beyond his home region.

Starting especially from
the end of the First World War,

he became the
Minister of the Interior

and slowly started to gain
more and more power.

But in 1924, Zogolli was ousted
after a leftist revolt.

He returned seven months later

with the backing
of a mercenary army,

seized control of the country

and later installed himself
as president.

But he was not what you would call
an enlightened leader.

He was a brutal semi-dictator.

He had no qualms about
killing off his political opponents.

He basically was not a nice guy.

They were a secret police

and they were controlling
all enemies of the state,

not only in Albania,
but even outside of the country.

The power-hungry tyrant, who had by
now,changed his name to Zogu,

was still not content.

His dream was to be recognised

as not a prime minister or
president, but as actual royalty.

With plenty of enemies, Zogu
realised he wasn't going to succeed

without backing from abroad

and he found a willing partner
in Mussolini's Italy.

Mussolini saw Albania as a strategic
asset in the Balkan region

that could strengthen
his own fascist dictatorship.

He was happy to pour money
into the country

in exchange for influence
over its economy and society.

Zogu now had the support he needed
to fulfil his despotic ambitions.

In 1928, with Italian approval,

Zogu refashioned the governance
of the entire country

and named himself Zog I,
King of Albania.

So he was the man who controlled
almost everything.

He even developed his own salute,

which was a flat hand placed
at the chest with the palm down.

Next, the newly-crowned King Zog

embarked on a series
of costly building projects.

This one was called
the Royal Villa of Durres.

The palace was finished in 1937,
it had Italian marble,

elaborate plasterwork,
all the best finishings and art.

It was, as a country that has
been under the Ottoman influence,

this type of architecture
was something new

and we were totally,
let's say, influenced

and modernised by contracting
architects from Italy.

The idea was a place for
the royal family to come

during the summer to escape
the heat of the city,

enjoy the coastal vistas,
welcoming visitors

to this stunning lookout
on the hill.

But trouble was brewing.

Mussolini had loaned Albania in
excess of approximately £4 million,

worth around £230 million today.

And he wanted to see
a return on his investment.

King Zog's government
began to struggle

under the burden of all these debts.

Meanwhile, Mussolini wanted
to exert more control,

not just over the government even,
over Albanian culture.

They were even mandating
that Italian be taught

in Albanian schools
but the King refused.

Mussolini became
increasingly frustrated

with Zog's refusal to comply.

In April 1939, he ordered his troops
to invade Albania.

They landed a small military force

and after some minor resistance,
quickly took over the country.

This was a stunning fall
from grace.

Zog had created a monarchy
out of sheer force of will

and political power,

but he was deposed
and exiled by his greatest ally.

King Zog would never again step foot
in his homeland

and lived the rest
of his life as an exile

in England, Egypt and France.

After World War II,

another political earthquake
swept Albania,

when it was taken over by
a communist regime

that operated under the protective
umbrella of the Soviet Union.

A royal palace had no place
in the new People's Republic

so it was repurposed as
a civil government building.

But when communism crumbled
in the early 1990s,

Albania's switch to democracy

created a new set of problems.

Zog's former palace was drawn
into the turmoil that followed.

Like so many other previously
communist countries,

they didn't have the economic
or legal infrastructure

to really make the transition
to free-market capitalism.

Corruption was everywhere.

The rudimentary financial system was
soon dominated by Ponzi schemes

and even government officials
backed pyramid schemes.

The pyramid schemes soon began
to default on payments

and declare themselves bankrupt.

Almost overnight,
hundreds of thousands of people

saw their savings vanish.

The government collapsed
and anarchy ensued.

Protests spread like wildfire

and arms depots began
to be looted across the country.

One report estimates that every
Albanian male

from the age of ten upwards,

had at least one firearm
in their possession.

This was absolute chaos.
In the harbour below the villa,

people streamed on to ships
to flee the country.

In March 1997, with Albania
on the brink of civil war,

the violent disorder reached
King Zog's lavish villa.

People came in, they took
almost everything in here.

There were poor people trying
to steal to get some money.

So after that, the villa was
totally, let's say, abandoned

and it remains like this.

When you see it, you feel sad
and you see that,

yeah, we built it,
we have destroyed it.

Today, King Zog's villa
sits neglected

above a modernising city.

His family returned
to Albania in 2002

and later reclaimed the property.

They then sold it
to private owners in 2023.

King Zog's grandson
is the head of the royal family,

but any return to power at this
point seems pretty unlikely.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media