All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S13E11.Fort.Traitor.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

In New Jersey,
a secretive facility

infiltrated by
a Soviet spy ring.

It's believed
the damage they did

to national security
was incalculable.

A palatial compound in Peru

that held lavish parties
for the country's elite.

But something terrible
was happening

right underneath
their feet.

And an island stronghold
besieged by the Nazis.

This battle is such a disaster
for the allies

that it gets called
"Churchill's Folly."

In the lowlands of New Jersey

are the remains
of a sprawling complex

linked to
a devastating infiltration.

We're just a few miles
from the Jersey Shore

in a typical residential area
with wide tree-lined streets.

But this one area is set apart.

Lots of wide-open spaces,
buildings that look like

they were constructed
as part of a unified project.

There appear to be
theaters or lecture halls.

So was this maybe
a school or university?

But other areas start to paint
quite a confusing picture.

One building has a room,

it's all filled
with inward-facing cones.

It feels otherworldly,

like something
out of a sci-fi movie.

You get the feeling that there
was something very advanced

and highly classified
happening here.

For decades,
this facility was

at the cutting edge
of military research.

But that would make it
a target.

You could argue that
this was the worst case

of internal espionage
in American history.

Melissa Ziobro became
the official historian

for this innovative complex
in 2004.

For close to 100 years,
this site was essential

to making sure that the US Army
was the best prepared

and best equipped in the world.

It was built to solve
a fundamental problem

that any military faces.

How do you ensure
accurate communication

in the midst of battle?

In May 1917,
just one month

after America
joined World War I,

a temporary camp
was established here.

It was dedicated to training
the Army's Signal Corps.

This was a group
completely devoted

to the correct transmission
of information

under the harshest conditions.

They used telegraphs,
telephones,

even carrier pigeons.

In recognition
of the crucial role

they played
in defeating Germany in 1918,

the camp was soon transformed
into a permanent installation.

In the gap between World War I
and World War II,

the world was changing rapidly.

The aircraft carrier
mechanized transport meant

the wars of the future
were gonna take place

over even larger expanses
of terrain or ocean.

That would strain the existing
communications technology.

We are in one of the barracks
buildings on Barker Circle,

the first permanent construction
done here on base.

They were very involved
in early wireless technologies,

early radio-- they were testing
air-to-ground radio.

The high-tech innovations
made here

led to this place developing
a nickname,

The Army's House of Magic.

But its official name
was Fort Monmouth.

During the 1930s,

they made a pivotal breakthrough

with a technology
that would change warfare.

Radar.

The radar systems developed
here would be deployed

on many fronts.

One of the first was Hawaii,

the home
of the US Pacific fleet.

There are actually radars
from Fort Monmouth

at Pearl Harbor
on December 7th, 1941.

They detect
the incoming Japanese planes.

Panicking at what they saw,
they reported

the incoming planes
to their superiors.

But the radar operators told
them, "Don't worry about it,

it's probably birds,
or maybe it's our own planes,"

because the technology
was just so new,

people didn't understand it,
they didn't trust it.

And, of course, then
the Japanese attack happens.

Now, back here
at Fort Monmouth,

the radar folks
are at first horrified.

They think that
their technology has failed.

Then they find out,
no, it worked,

but the warning wasn't heeded.

This will go down in history
as one of the great

communications disasters
in modern warfare.

Thrust into global war,
Fort Monmouth's mission

was now more critical
than ever.

And thousands
of civilian engineers

were brought
into the Signal Corps

to create vital
new communication technologies.

This would have been
a highly classified facility.

The anechoic chamber absorbs
sound and electromagnetic rays

and allowed personnel
to test things

like antennas and radars.

As well as further
advances in radar,

they also developed
groundbreaking backpack radios.

These made a vital difference
on the battlefield.

The technologies
coming out of Fort Monmouth

were the envy of the world,
and so there was

a constant recognition
that we might be infiltrated.

Yet Fort Monmouth
had already been compromised,

with a mole embedded
within its ranks.

Julius Rosenberg joined
the Army Signal Corps

Engineering Laboratories
in 1940.

He worked as an engineer
and inspector for them

until 1945,
but early in the war,

he'd been recruited
as a Soviet spy.

The history here is tricky.

The Soviets were
nominally America's allies

in fighting the Germans,
but everyone knew the Soviets

would again be America's enemies
at some point

after the end of the war.

Julius Rosenberg
was perfectly positioned

to gather as much information
as possible.

And he wasn't operating alone.

Rosenberg and his handlers
recruited two more people

who worked at Fort Monmouth,
Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant.

Rosenberg's spy ring copied
more than 9,000 pages

of top-secret documents,
information about

a hundred different
weapon systems.

In one case, Rosenberg obtained
the actual unit

of a proximity fuse,

an incredibly vital piece
of technology.

He literally put it in a box
and wrapped it up

as a Christmas present
for his Soviet handler.

As World War II was morphing
into the Cold War,

Rosenberg continued to smuggle
top-secret material

back to his Soviet overlords,

now America's primary foe.

In this dawning nuclear age,

the stakes
were higher than ever .

He recruited
his brother-in-law,

who worked at the post-war
period's most important,

most top-secret project,
Los Alamos,

where they were doing the work
to develop the atomic weapon.

The information that Rosenberg
passed on to the Soviets

allowed them
to greatly accelerate

their own program
to develop an atomic bomb.

On August 29th, 1949,

the Soviet Union tested
their first nuclear weapon.

It was almost a carbon copy
of the Fat Man Bomb

developed at Los Alamos.

US intelligence investigated
a potential leak,

which eventually led them back
to Rosenberg

and his co-conspirators,
who began their betrayal

at Fort Monmouth.

Helped by a tip-off
from the Russian handlers,

Barr and Sarant fled
to the Soviet Union.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were not so lucky.

Ethel's brother,
David Greenglass,

implicated the pair after
his own arrest in June 1950

for leaking confidential
information from Los Alamos.

The Rosenbergs
were put on trial

in one of the most publicized
and closely watched events

in American history.

They were both sentenced
to death and executed

at Sing Sing Prison.

Two months later, in 1953,
the Rosenbergs' connection

to Fort Monmouth
was pounced on

by a fanatical
anti-communist crusader,

Joseph McCarthy.

The complete wholehearted
support now

of the commanding generals
in Fort Monmouth

who want to clean communists

and potential espionage agents
out of their organization.

2
In 1950, a security breach was
discovered at Los Alamos,

where Oppenheimer and his team
had developed the atomic bomb.

It led investigators
to Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg,

and his wife, Ethel,
who were both executed in 1953.

A flamboyant senator,
Joseph McCarthy,

was taking advantage
of the concerns

about communist infiltration

to boost his own profile
and career.

So once McCarthy knows

that Rosenberg had worked
for the Signal Corps,

Fort Monmouth is the home
of the Signal Corps,

he becomes convinced that surely

there must still be
a communist spy ring operating.

He actually visited the base
as part of his investigation

in the fall of 1953.

He made a big show of how
he was here and he was,

you know, personally trying
to root out these communists.

Based on McCarthy's allegations,
the officials at Fort Monmouth

suspended 42 employees.

Of the 42 accused,

all but two
were reinstated by 1958.

But 15 years later,

after a military
reorganization,

the Signal Corps
was relocated in 1973.

What remains behind here
at Fort Monmouth

is something known
as the Electronics Command.

And then we start getting
into things like

night-vision technologies,
and GPS and early cellphones,

and on, and on, and on,

up through
the global war on terror.

The base was officially closed
on September 15th, 2011.

And with that, nearly a century

of US Army occupation
came to an end.

But Fort Monmouth would have
one more brush with fame.

Bruce Springsteen,
who is a Monmouth County native,

practiced here
in the Expo Theater

that we're standing in.

I have met Bruce.
He is lovely.

You know, he's just another
Jersey Shore guy

who happens to be
an international rock star.

Today, like many retired
US military bases,

there are plans
for Fort Monmouth

to be converted to various kinds
of civilian uses,

including business and housing.

And there are plans underway
to turn parts of the campus

into a movie studio.

In North Wales,
near the Irish Sea,

is a scarred landscape
that helped inspire

Tolkien's Mordor
and Middle Earth.

We're in the ancient
rugged mountains of Wales.

It's one of the wettest parts
of Britain, cloudy and misty,

but the landscape
has a special majesty.

But the landscape
around here isn't pristine.

It's deeply scarred,

and there are huge piles
of rubble and debris everywhere.

You see old structures,
some of them in ruins

with all kinds of equipment
laying around.

Clearly, there's something
in the hills here that was worth

an enormous amount
of human effort.

This material
was carved out of the land,

transforming the region,

and creating a vast
unseen labyrinth.

When you descend
into the mountainside,

you enter a completely
different world.

It seems like there are
miles and miles of tunnels,

and then interspersed
along them,

these enormous cavernous rooms.

But the material they were
mining was prized

across the world,
from New York to San Francisco,

even as far as Australia.

At one time,
half the buildings in New York

were covered with this material.

Phil Lee Jones has a deep
connection to this site.

He gives tours
around the complex

where his forefathers
once toiled.

I can go back about five
generations of my family

working in these places,
probably more.

You can imagine
all the machinery,

all the wheels turning.

It'd be a very noisy place,
it'd be a very busy place.

As far back as Roman times,

humans have tried to extract

a precious resource
from this land.

But into the mid-1800s,
that extraction

began to change it
beyond all recognition,

from rolling green hills

into the blackened landscape
of today.

This whole
enormous complex began

with one man's determination
to find his fortune

in these barren hills.

Entrepreneur John Greaves
arrived here in the 1840s.

Greaves was convinced
there was a seam

of what was known as blue
grey gold somewhere here.

He just had to find it.

That blue grey gold was
a precious rock called slate.

He dug for three years
and found nothing.

The story goes that he sank
his entire fortune

into the search and was
on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then, in 1849,
his prayers were answered.

They found what's known
as the Merioneth Old Vein,

and they began to follow it
deep underground.

Eventually, they would dig out
250 chambers across 16 levels,

stretching 1,200 feet
from top to bottom.

And it's all connected
by 25 miles of tunnels.

This is Llechwedd mine,

in an area called
Blaenau Ffestiniog,

which became known

as the slate capital
of the world.

The slate from Wales
has a reputation of being

some of the best in the world.

It's very smooth,
has a beautiful color,

it weathers well,
and despite being easy to split

on one axis,
it remains extremely durable.

That makes it a wonderful
building material.

Highly resistant
to fire and corrosion,

it's also waterproof,

lending itself perfectly
to roofing.

Slate roofs can last 100 years,
even a couple of centuries.

Wagons would be coming in with
big slabs along the rail tracks

here from underground.
They'd come to...

these sawing tables...

and then they were sawn
into manageable blocks,

and then they were transported
down to these cubicles

down over here,
where then they would be

turned into finished
roofing slates.

Into the 1850s,
it was being exported

to all corners of the globe,

giving rise to the saying,
"Wales roofed the world,"

a fact not lost
on the mine's owner.

Greaves was
an astute businessman,

and he invested in a series
of railways and shipping wharves

to ensure that he could
export his slate

around the rest of the country
and the world.

As San Francisco was having
a huge building boom

due to the gold rush,
a lot of the buildings

were roofed with slate
from this mine.

Greaves' operations were
proving to be a huge success.

But even by the standards
of underground mining,

slate mines were
particularly hazardous.

He was working in this
area, and unfortunately,

the blast went off early.

2
Llechwedd mine was part
of a slate mining boom

in North Wales,
which became famous

in the mid-1800s
for roofing the world.

It's hard to imagine
just how dangerous

and difficult this work was.

First of all,
no electric lights.

So they're descending
deep, deep, deep

into the mountainside
with a candle at best.

They can see basically
what's in front of their faces.

The miners could be crushed
to death by cave-ins,

burned by gas explosions,
or blown up by gunpowder.

This is what happened
to my grandfather.

He was working in this area,

and unfortunately,
the blast went off early,

and he lost the use of his hand.

His hand was mangled,
it was like that,

couldn't straighten
his fingers out.

He had a big scar
on the inside of his wrist,

and blue freckles
all over his hand.

It's where the slate
had gone in underneath the skin.

So I can appreciate
the dangers.

But there was
another unseen threat,

perhaps the biggest risk of all.

Mining and processing
the slate was very dusty,

and the workers had
no protection against it.

They spent their lives
breathing in

harmful silica dust.

The government was so
concerned they did an inquiry

into the death rate
in these mines

and they found
that it was even worse

than that of coal miners.

The risks would eventually
prompt the miners

to call for action.

In 1874, a mine workers' union
was formed.

This is one of the first places
where there was a real effort

to unionize the workforce,
to fight for some

of their rights, to fight
for greater safety, better pay.

But as this movement
was gathering pace

among its workers,

Llechwedd's owners
were struck by tragedy.

John Greaves died in 1880
and passed the operation

over to his son,
also called John Greaves.

He was soon faced
with a wave of strikes

that swept across the region.

And a recession,
which dragged on

into the 1890s, compounded
by a changing global market.

There was increasing
competition from cheaper slate

brought in from abroad,
including mines

in Pennsylvania,
which were originally set up

by Welsh miners.

The industry's decline
continued,

driven by the Great Depression,
and two World Wars.

The last underground mining
here finally ended

in the 1980s.

That's the downfall
of Welsh slate.

It's the best in the world,

but it's the most expensive
in the world as well.

The slate landscape
of Northwest Wales

is now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.

But Llechwedd and other local
mines have also been repurposed

to boost employment.

In 1972,
the Llechwedd slate caverns

opened to the public
as a tourist attraction.

As well as historical tours,
a company called Zip World

has turned the complex
into an adventure playground,

which includes the fastest
zip line in the world.

In Greece
is the rugged island of Leros,

a strategic outpost
that's been the envy of leaders

and dictators through the ages.

On one of the largest peaks is
a strange three-sided formation

made of concrete.

From the ground, this just looks
like some concrete construction.

But when you get above ground

and you look down
at this place...

that is one strange three-sided
structure down there.

Though unique looking,
it becomes clear

that it doesn't stand alone.

It's part of a wider network.

Low concrete buildings,
tunnels, bunkers,

towers with high vantage points.

These must be some type
of military structures,

but they've fallen
into disrepair.

Is this natural decay,

or signs
of a more violent event?

Up close, the walls,

riddled with bullet holes
and pockmarks,

provide the answer.

We were scared.

They were bombing continuously.

It was
psychologically unbearable.

2
On the Greek island of Leros,

shattered structures
are all that remain

of a bitter conflict
that ripped

this quiet community apart.

This modern sculpture
was the acoustic mirror.

It was a concave structure that
trapped and amplified the sound

of the incoming aircraft.

Local resident Nicos Phocas
has been entranced by

these formations for decades.

So the operator would work
within this trench.

When he heard the noise,
let's say now here,

he knew that it was coming
from that direction.

Around it, there was a lot
of anti-aircraft guns,

and also the command center
for all the air defense control.

Leros is part of Greece today,
but these structures date back

to an era when the island
was under foreign control.

This aircraft warning system
was part

of an extensive network
of fortifications

built in the 1920s and '30s

on the orders
of Italian fascist dictator

Benito Mussolini.

Their purpose was to protect

the island's greatest
strategic asset,

a port that would allow
Mussolini to challenge

the British Navy's domination
of the region's seas.

This island is
providing a massive naval base,

a deep-water port that enables
the Italians to keep sea power

active against rival powers
in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It was one of the largest
naval bases they had

outside of the mainland Italy.

They had seaplanes,
they had warships,

they had the submarine base.

It gave them total control
of the area.

Mussolini's rapidly expanding
navy could now vie

for supremacy
in the Eastern Mediterranean,

able to refuel and resupply
in safety under the protection

of the island's fortifications.

It wasn't until World War II
that these defenses

would be put to use.

By 1943, the region was largely
occupied by the Axis powers

of Nazi Germany
and Fascist Italy.

But when the Allied invasion
of mainland Italy

began in September,

Mussolini's regime crumbled

and his armies surrendered.

The race was now on
for control of Leros.

The Germans rushed to seize
all the areas

held by the Italians,

who were now seen as traitors.

This made British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill

incredibly nervous.
He, like Mussolini,

saw these islands
as strategically crucial.

And he says,

"We have got
to take these islands."

But his American allies
would have none of it.

The American decision-makers,

Dwight Eisenhower in particular,

want nothing whatsoever to do
with trying to grab

Italian-held Greek islands
off the coast of Turkey.

From an American point of view,
if we're gonna attack anything

in the Mediterranean,
it's Italy.

But Churchill was hell-bent
on seeing his plans through,

even if it meant
the British going alone.

Churchill rushed 3,000
British troops to the island

to reinforce the 8,000-man
Italian garrison

now stranded on Leros.

They won the race
against the Nazis,

but a reckoning was coming.

On September 26th,
the German air attack began.

The Luftwaffe began
a relentless campaign

that lasted over 50 days.

Nickolas Daloglou
was just nine years old

when the bombardments began.

Every time we heard those
bombs, we would cry.

We'd spend the whole day
in the shelters.

In our shelter,
there were 60 people.

We were scared.

We were children,
and we were crying.

But the Germans didn't just
target military positions.

They attacked the islands,
towns, and villages.

We would return to our homes,
only to find nothing left.

Our homes were also destroyed
by the Germans.

It was
psychologically unbearable.

After seven weeks
of relentless attack,

in the early hours
of November 12th,

a German invasion force
approached Leros.

Nearly 3,000 elite troops
launched an assault

across the island,

hoping to claim the vital port
for Nazi Germany.

Some units landed
right beneath

this arsenal of weapons.

These were the mounting
bolts for the guns.

The guns placed here
were anti-ship guns.

Everyone knows
that a naval ship can never win

in a gunfight
against a shore battery.

But the cannon on top of this
steep peak had a fatal flaw.

The gun is built
to fire at something far.

If you bring something
up close,

you can't depress the barrel
far enough to shoot at it.

This gun is fearsome at range.

It is useless up close.

German landing craft
managed to sneak in

under the blind spot
of the guns.

They started
climbing up the hill.

The allied artillery troops
stationed in this battery

were about to be confronted
with hand-to-hand combat

against elite Nazi infantry.

And little did they know,
paratroopers were preparing

to drop right behind them.

2
November 12th, 1943.

Britain and their new ally,
Italy, are defending

the island of Leros
as elite Nazi shock troops

land under the blind spot
of a coastal battery.

So the German troopers
that landed there

were specially trained
to climb the rocks.

The fighting was close quarters,

hand-to-hand fight
with handguns.

It was actually like
being on a street fight.

It was that close.

Once they secured
positions on the rocky slopes,

it was impossible to dislodge
the German soldiers.

Soon, the allied troops
were hemmed in on all sides.

There were also some
paratroopers that fell

on the other side of the hill,

and there were heavy losses
on both sides.

It took the Germans two days
to conquer this gunpoint.

With total control
of the skies,

the Nazis dropped
waves of paratroopers

onto the narrow neck
at the center of the island,

splitting the Allied forces
in two.

After four days
of bitter fighting,

the Germans had
the Allied HQ surrounded.

At that point, the British
commander surrendered.

He was keen to avoid a massacre.

Out of the 3,000
British troops on the island,

almost 600 were killed,
and the rest were either injured

or taken as prisoners of war.

The Italians lost
nearly 300 men, and in total,

8,500 allied troops
were taken captive.

This is said to be one
of Germany's last victories

in World War II.

It's such
a disaster for the British

that it gets called
"Churchill's Folly."

Despite its obvious flaws
from the very start,

Winston Churchill
remained defiant.

Privately, he blamed
the Americans.

With their help,
it might've been avoided.

Germany occupied Leros
until the end of the war.

After their defeat,
it returned to British control.

The island finally became
part of Greece in 1948.

Since then,
the gun battery ruins

have sat abandoned,

slowly crumbling
down the mountainside.

In recent years,
the Greek cultural ministry

declared Leros'
World War II remains

as an historic monument.

Leros stands as a living museum
of one of the most epic

and tragic battles
of World War II.

Eighty miles south of Peru's
capital city, Lima,

is a palatial compound
designed by an owner

living a double life.

We can see farmlands stretching
out into the distance,

but surrounded by modern
structures is a building

that looks really out of place.

This building has a real
mishmash of features,

with its ornate arches
and tiling.

There are also Gothic spires,

castle-like walls,

and these towers.

The gardens indicate
wealth and opulence,

which is mirrored inside.

Decorative wallpaper,
wood carvings,

and stained-glass windows.

Whoever built this had
some serious cash to play with.

This was more than just a house.

It was the gateway
to Peru's elite.

On a lower level,
we find a trapdoor

that leads to a dark,
dungeon-like space.

It's a completely lightless
network of narrow tunnels.

They could have been
for access or storage,

but you can't help wondering
if they had

a more sinister purpose.

Behind these bright
and colorful walls

lie terrible secrets that most
Peruvians remain unaware of.

In the early 1800s,

a vast estate growing
sugar cane and cotton

was acquired by an iconic
figure in Peru's history,

Hipólito Unanue.

He was an academic
and politician that supported

Peru's fight for independence.

After liberation from Spain
was achieved in 1824,

Unanue served
as president of the Congress

and the Minister of Finance
in the new Republic of Peru.

He died in 1833,
and the estate passed

to his son,
José Unanue de la Cuba.

José Unanue was determined
to build himself

the most luxurious home
on the Peruvian coast,

as well as have it serve
as a tribute to his father.

Construction began
on this project in 1843.

Local historian David Pino

has spent years
investigating this place,

and has unearthed
some surprises along the way.

In the mid-19th century,
the house looked

vastly different
from its current state.

Nevertheless,
traces of its former grandeur

can still be seen.

The walls were adorned
with tapestries,

lamps illuminated the space,

and the furniture
was imported from Europe.

Legend has it that
Unanue bought a Bavarian castle,

stripped it of its doors,

windows, and furniture,
and transported them all the way

here to decorate his own palace.

He was heavily influenced

by North African
Moorish architecture,

and you can definitely see
those influences.

Its construction was
a passion project

and continued to evolve
for decades.

The many visitors who enjoyed
these spaces knew it

as Hacienda Unanue.

The mansion hosted

an array of people
from the Peruvian elite

and regularly hosted
lavish banquets.

But just feet away from these
extravagant parties

lay the dark secret
behind Unanue's wealth.

2
In the Cañete Valley,
near Lima,

José Unanue constructed
an elaborate palace.

Throughout the mid-1800s,
he welcomed

the Peruvian aristocracy,
hosting parties and banquets.

But a trapdoor leads
to a different world

that underpinned his wealth.

It's known that these spaces
were used to confine

dozens of enslaved individuals

who were subjected
to torture, mutilations,

and great suffering
in the narrow corridors.

The estate was run
on a system of slavery.

Unanue didn't just own
enslaved people.

His mansion also served
as a marketplace.

The auctioneers
were located on this terrace,

where they could see
enslaved people being brought in

and offered like livestock.

The price of a slave
at that time was 250 pesos,

half the cost of a pack donkey.

The slave trade in Peru had
technically been abolished

in 1821, but illicit imports
of enslaved Africans into Peru

continued, albeit in secret.

It's believed the tunnels were
used both to hold

and punish
the 400 enslaved people

that Unanue
is thought to have owned.

This continued on the estate
until 1854, when slavery was

abolished by president
Ramón Castilla,

who became known
as The Liberator.

Landowners found a way

to replace the labor shortage
by bringing in Chinese workers.

In the 20 years
after emancipation,

some 100,000 Chinese immigrants
came to Peru.

They were promised
a better life

or coerced into leaving China
by recruiters

and brought here to work
as indentured servants.

This system of forced labor
was brutal,

and it led to about half
of these Chinese workers

dying before the age of 40
for things like exhaustion,

ill treatment, but even suicide.

But soon, these workers
would be presented

with an opportunity
to seize freedom

and enact a measure of revenge.

In 1879,
war broke out with Chile.

The following year,
an invasion force landed

40 miles south of Unanue.

The Chilean army rampaged
through the area,

moving north
towards the capital,

passing through Cañete Valley.

Many of these Chinese laborers
joined the Chileans

in ransacking
these Peruvian estates.

But their collaboration led
to terrible reprisals

from the local
Peruvian peasants.

In 1881, tensions boiled over,
and a riot broke out.

In the ensuing
violence and chaos,

1,000 Chinese workers
were massacred,

including on the Unanue estate.

Peace only returned
to the region in 1884,

when the Chilean army withdrew.

The following year,

José Unanue died childless,
and the estate passed through

his nephew's family
for generations.

But the 1960s
would see seismic changes

that would transform Peru.

In 1968, army general
Juan Velasco Alvarado

led a coup to seize control
of the government

and forcibly implemented
agrarian reform across Peru.

The estates were transformed
into farming cooperatives,

partly owned by
the peasants who worked them.

Jose Unanue's descendants
were forced to leave,

and the surrounding estate
divided up among the poor.

The palace itself
was left abandoned,

and its fittings
and furniture looted.

In 1972, Unanue Palace
was declared

a national historic monument.

Despite it being open
to the public,

this abandoned building
has suffered

from lack of investment
and has fallen into ruin.