Original subtitles

(water splashing) (airplane whirring)

(uptempo dramatic music)

(seagulls squawking)

(car engine growling)

(graphic whooshing)

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

I'm Christopher Clark, and I'm traveling Europe

to discover the UNESCO World Heritage Sites

that have arisen on this continent over the millennia.

Mighty cities that have influenced the course

of world history, landscapes, religious sites,

groundbreaking inventions,

all this and much more is what defines Europe.

(walking stick clanking) (animals calling)

(tense dramatic music)

In Spain, I'll walk the way of St. James

to Santiago de Compostela, visit Paris in France,

travel to the Rhine Gorge,

and visit organ makers in Germany,

as well as inspecting relics

of the Industrial Revolution in Volklingen,

but my journey begins in Venice.

(waves whooshing)

We've been given special permission to fly over Venice,

and seeing it from a bird's eye view

we're reminded once again why this city is considered

the embodiment of a unique heritage.

Grand squares, palaces and churches perched on canals,

the visual arts and fine handicrafts

flourished here as well.

Without the sea, none of this would have been possible.

Europe is a continent on the move,

and the waters that surround it

have always played a vital role.

When Europeans began traveling the seas,

whether as explorers or as brutal conquerors,

they changed the world, for better or for worse.

But the world changed the Europeans too.

Ideas and knowledge flowed back across the water,

and with them came desirable wares of every kind.

Venice is a fine example.

This is one of the great entrepots of the eastern trade,

and it was here that the riches of the Orient

came to Europe, silk, spices, gold, silver, and jewels,

German, French, and English merchants did business here

spreading the wealth across the continent.

That's how this little city-state of Venice

grew into the (speaking in a foreign language),

the most serene Republic of St. Mark,

and made its mark on the rest of Europe.

(tense dramatic music)

High above the city, on top of the Campanile,

the bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica,

hovers, the golden Archangel Gabriel.

Protection, strength, masculinity, and biblical heroism,

the name, Gabriel, contains all these things,

and Mark may have been a Saint,

but his name also means son of Mars, the god of war.

In Venice, Christian belief, and the aspiration to power

have always been inseparable bedfellows.

The Venetians were major participants in the Crusades,

right from the beginning,

but at some point they became less interested

in liberating Jerusalem from its Arab rulers,

and more focused on expanding their sphere of influence

culminating in their conquest of Constantinople in 1204.

The famous Quadrigas on St. Mark's Basilica

is nothing more than looted art

from the Byzantine capital on the Bosphorus.

Venice now felt as powerful as Byzantium had once been,

and with good reason by the mid-13th century,

it was the most important naval and commercial power

in the world, and incidentally,

this church with its domes and ornate decorations

was constructed according to Byzantine design

in an era when the Gothic style was the fashion

in the rest of Europe.

(tense dramatic music)

In the mysterious darkness of the Basilica,

Western Europe meets the East.

These mosaics with their Christian themes

are the work of six centuries,

and this place was used for more than just masses,

baptisms, and weddings.

The captains of the enormous Venetian fleet came here

under the main dome, which depicts the Ascension of Christ,

to pray for a safe return before they sailed out to sea.

And the doge, the leader of the city

was presented to the people here

in St. Mark's Basilica after his election.

Next door, the doge's palace

with its pink marble facade stands as a testimony

to the power and the glory of the Serenissima.

(tense dramatic music)

This is the exact spot where the Bucentaur,

the doge's magnificent ship was launched,

and no one captured the moment more beautifully

than the Venetian painter, Canaletto.

All the heads of state rowed out to the sea

in a maritime procession,

and the doge called out, (speaking in a foreign language).

We marry you, sea,

as a sign of true and perpetual dominion,

and to seal this marriage,

the doge threw a gold ring into the waves

in the hope that it might bring even more riches to Venice.

(tense dramatic music)

And come those riches did.

They were carved into the facades of the buildings,

even the churches, rather than the usual figures of Saints,

some of the churches boast carved images of the heads

of wealthy patron families,

and the ships that brought these riches into the city.

(tense dramatic music) (boat horn sounding)

Things are no different today.

Tourism brings in the money,

monstrous cruise ships dock daily in Venice,

more than 500 every year.

They are like enormous harbingers of doom.

What do they mean for the city?

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

Tourism benefits Venice, doesn't it,

but it's also a threat.

(speaking in a foreign language)

The famous cruise ships, like these here,

have repeatedly sparked heated debates.

As activists, we are fighting against these ships.

The crazy thing is they only account for 2%

of total tourism.

But the people from these ships overrun Venice every day

in their thousands for a few hours,

then they disappear again.

They don't contribute anything to the City of Venice,

if anything, they have a negative impact.

Mass tourism is destroying our city.

(speaking in a foreign language)

cruise ship travel to Venice

has been a major industry for some time.

international corporations, and the port authorities

earn millions from these immense boats every year,

but the Venetians themselves hardly see a penny of it.

A great deal hangs in the balance for Venice,

the city must be protected from the problems

caused by excessive tourism.

Many Venetians would like to see the city

placed on the UNESCO red list

of at-risk World Heritage Sites.

Thus far only vague attempts at a solution

have been forthcoming.

13 million visitors a year, it's just too many.

(tense dramatic music)

What looks like a cohesive city from above

was once more than 120 separate islands in a swampy lagoon,

they were connected with each other by more than 400 bridges

and canals were dug to serve as transport routes,

and that's how Venice was created in the fifth century

as Attila the Hun ravaged the surrounding kingdom

of Venetia, many people were able to escape to safety

on these islands,

but how did they manage to build a city in a swamp?

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

A typical Venetian building is supported

by a brick wall in the mud.

The facades on the canal side are built on long, thin poles,

on top of that are bricks and limestone,

partly to prevent rising damp.

It was a clever way of preventing the ornate facades

from sliding down into the water,

but the system wasn't built to last forever.

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

Now these impressive buildings are sinking

by about three millimeters every year.

Bow waves and ship's propellors stir up the water,

slowly washing away the mortar between the bricks.

The foundations are crumbling,

and the city is beginning to sink.

The morbid charm of Venice takes on a new meaning,

but the reasons for this impending catastrophe

are only partly local.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Our city's problems are very closely linked

to climate change, and that's why we have to think globally,

not just locally.

It would be wrong to believe that the city administrators,

or the government could do anything about it on their own,

they are fighting a losing battle after all.

Venice is part of humanity's cultural heritage,

it belongs to the world,

and the city's fate will be largely determined

by a problem that also affects all of humanity.

That's why it can't be left up to the Venetians alone

to find a solution.

So Venice, isn't just sinking, it's drowning.

When the acqua alta, the high water comes,

the first place it always floods

is the low-lying St. Mark's Square.

It's been happening for centuries, but in recent years,

the floods have grown more frequent, and more dangerous,

and they're taking their toll on the Venetian lagoon,

which has also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rising sea levels are also exacting a cost here,

erosion, and new deeper channels for cruise ships

are turning the lagoon back into part of the open sea.

(tense dramatic music)

It was really the Venetian lagoon

that gave birth to the city.

This is where it all started,

the powerful Republic of Venice could only have arisen

in this shallow body of water

with its more than 100 islands.

The lagoon served as a gateway to the world,

but it also protected the city from invaders,

because only the Venetians knew how to find the waterways

that were deep enough to be navigable by large ships.

And even today, these waterways are marked

with pali, or wooden poles that are tied together,

and when a foreign Naval power threatened the city,

the Venetians simply removed the poles,

turning the lagoon into a treacherous maze of shallows.

(tense dramatic music)

The village of Burano with its crooked Campanile

is one of the beauties of the lagoon.

It rests on four tiny islands connected by bridges.

Today, many Islanders still make their living from fishing.

Like the Venetians, they live between land and sea,

and they try to outdo each other by painting their houses

in the most brilliant colors

as if in defiance of an uncertain future,

because of course the environmental changes

taking place in the lagoon are also leaving their mark

on the fishers of Burano.

Many of them have started specializing in catching moeche,

Venice's soft shell lagoon crabs.

Sebastiano is one of these fishermen.

We're sailing out to his fishing grounds.

(relaxing dramatic music)

The crabs live on the Sandy floor of the lagoon.

In Venice, they are considered gioielli,

jewels, or a delicacy.

They can only be found in the lagoon,

and only twice a year for a few weeks in spring and autumn.

(speaking in a foreign language)

This tradition is passed on from father

to son over the generations.

Finding the really good crabs isn't easy at all.

There used to be a lot more fish in the lagoon.

Today, the crabs are our most important business.

The large number of ships have become a problem,

and not just the big cruise ships, but the small ones too.

There are just too many of them,

and they bring debris with them.

The lagoon is a closed system, it shouldn't be disrupted.

(speaking in a foreign language)

(tense dramatic music)

The island, Lazzaretto Vecchio, was also a closed system.

It was a plague hospital, far away from the city.

Plague sufferers were placed in quarantine here.

They received medical care, but many died.

The term quarantine was probably first coined

in the city state of Venice,

quaranta giorni, 40 days is how long the sick

was supposed to remain isolated,

while all events in the city,

including church services were banned,

and people were ordered to remain in their houses,

experiences that will feel familiar

to those of us who have been dealing

with a modern pandemic.

(tense dramatic music) (birds chirping)

The Black Death returned to Venice in the 17th century,

and this time it was more virulent than ever before.

November 1630 marks the beginning of an era of mass death.

The Venational health authorities recorded 14,465 deaths

for the month of November alone.

Plague suffers who were still alive

were quarantined on the Island of the Lazzaretto Vecchio.

It was hell on earth.

The sick were piled together, three or four to a bed.

Medical assistance was virtually non-existent.

Prospects for recovery were grim.

Mass graves with up to 1,500 corpses were dug

right here on this island.

The wounds inflicted on the city by the plague never healed,

and Venice would never be restored to its former glory.

"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,"

is written above the entrance to hell

in Dante's "Divine Comedy."

I can't help, but recall these words

as I enter the Lazzaretto Vecchio.

(footsteps thudding) (slow relaxing music)

Plague suffers received experimental therapies here,

and an effort was made to supply them

with suitable food and drink,

but when the numbers surged, the conditions were grim.

Graffiti from the 17th century,

even in this desperate place,

plague patients wanted to be remembered.

(birds chirping)

It's said that the howling of the sick

could be heard across the water

on the neighboring islands in the Lido.

(slow relaxing music)

The institutions and architecture of the Christian churches

have left deep marks on this continent's identity.

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

I'm on my way to Spain, to Santiago de Compostela,

the capital city of Galicia.

Santiago is the destination of every road

and trail on the Camino de Santiago.

The way of Saint James,

a network of pilgrimage routes that crisscrosses Europe.

The main route leads through Northern Spain

where I'm traveling today.

(birds chirping) (slow relaxing music)

The golden age of this pilgrimage trail

was the 11th and 12th centuries

when the Christian sites in the Holy Land

were no longer accessible to pilgrims.

Today, it's hard to imagine how devout the Christians

of this era must have been to make this pilgrimage

all the way to the outer reaches of Galicia.

The pilgrims world was shaped by Saints, and relics,

and by the desire to be close to them and thus close to God.

And the journey towards God was in theory at least,

a journey away from sin.

Pilgrims sacrificed everything

in these dark and dangerous times

to travel halfway across Europe on foot.

And all along the Camino today,

you can still sense something,

The sinews of Christian Europe,

perhaps sinews that cross the entire continent,

and extend into Britain and Ireland.

Even back in the 12th century,

everything there was to know about this pilgrimage route

was precisely documented in a book,

the "Liber Sancti Jacobi", written by a priest,

and this book doesn't just describe the route itself

in great detail, it also warns pilgrims

of the dangers they might face, diseases,

dishonest innkeepers along the route,

highwaymen, and even prostitution,

which was a very lively trade here in Porto Marine.

In other words, the journey to St. James

had both a sacred and a worldly dimension,

and this Pilgrim's guide is as practical

as it is spiritual.

But the book mainly focuses on the many miracles

attributed to St. James,

and it also includes prayers and hymns.

(singing in a foreign language)

(somber choral music) (birds chirping)

The churches and cathedrals all along the way

of St. James were important pilgrimage sites,

and they are also World Heritage Sites,

like Chartres in France,

the archetypal high-gothic cathedral,

further South, the Romanesque churches of Arre,

or the Cathedral of Salamanca,

but smaller churches were part of the route as well.

The pilgrims journeyed from one house of worship

to the next.

(slow relaxing music)

Today, you'll meet pilgrims from all over the world,

from every culture on the way of St. James.

This scallop shell from the nearby Atlantic Ocean

is the badge and symbol of the pilgrimage to Santiago,

it's even mentioned in the 12th century pilgrims' guides,

but many of today's pilgrims are motivated

by other than purely religious motives.

They want to learn something about themselves,

get to know other people,

commune with nature and draw inspiration

from the beautiful landscapes,

and the life of small wayside villages,

a welcome change for city people.

(slow traditional music) (cows mooing)

The journey is less about formal religion

than about spirituality.

50 years ago, these trails were practically deserted,

but in the late 1980s, the way of St. James

experienced a renascence,

and in 1993, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Now there are years when 300,000 pilgrims

travel the way of St. James.

(slow traditional music) (birds chirping)

The way of St. James, doesn't always end in Santiago,

which we'll explore soon,

since the Middle Ages,

pilgrims have extended their journey

to the western most tip of Spain on the Atlantic Coast,

and for a very good reason.

Santiago de Compostela

the name means St. James on the field of stars.

This apostle of Jesus is said to be buried

at the cathedral in Santiago.

It's a slightly murky story, here at the end of the world,

finis terrae as the Romans called this region,

is where he preached and attempted to spread Christianity

without much success, as has to be said.

Then when he returned to Palestine in the year 44 AD,

he was killed by King Herod Agrippa I

His disciples laid him to rest in a sarcophagus,

which they placed in a boat that they pushed out

into the Mediterranean Sea.

Through divine providence,

the boat drifted a shore on, you guessed it,

the Galician Coast and the sarcophagus was entombed

where the cathedral stands today, or so legend has it.

(tense dramatic music)

Whether you believe the story or not,

arriving at the cathedral is the highlight

of this pilgrimage, and here there's an appointment to keep

with the Saint himself.

Here behind the statue of St. James

is where the arduous journey comes to an end,

a journey that has a very special and personal meaning

for each and every pilgrim.

Exhausted, you embrace the Saint,

and then return into everyday life,

into a life that may perhaps have been changed

by the pilgrim's journey.

(uptempo dramatic music)

(people murmuring)

The historic district of Santiago de Compostela

is also a World Heritage Site.

The constant traffic and visitors transformed the city

into a prosperous cultural hub.

(people murmuring)

Right down to the 15th century,

Santiago de Compostela attracted more pilgrims

than Rome or Jerusalem.

Every European cultural and artistic movement

is represented here from the Middle Ages,

through the Renaissance to the Baroque.

(tense dramatic music)

Santiago's architecture speaks of a Europe

that was deeply connected

across ethnic and geographical boundaries.

Today, these connections are global,

and they're embodied in the encounters

between people who reached the end of their pilgrimage

in Santiago de Compostela.

The journey is a shared experience,

but it has a different and highly personal meaning

for everyone who undertakes it.

Where are you from?

From Perth, Australia.

From Perth, Australia?

Yeah, yeah. Amazing, I'm from Sydney.

Oh wow. And where are you from?

I'm from Columbia, specifically in Cucuta.

I wanted to challenge myself, I guess.

I wanted to have some time to think about some things

in my life, and some direction in my life.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

The people focus on the simple things

in life, which helped them realize that their worries

aren't really as bad as they thought.

There are so many ways to enjoy life,

and that's true for hiking too.

Why did you do it? Why did I do it?

Well, I guess I was kind of lost,

and I needed time to know myself better,

and That's why, yeah.

The mass for pilgrims held in the cathedral

is an incredible spectacle.

After reading out all the names,

and nationalities of the pilgrims

who've arrived in Santiago,

the tiraboleiros spring into action.

They are the men in red velvet robes

who pull up the Botafumeiro,

an enormous incense burner.

even when empty, it weighs 53 kilograms,

and when it starts to swing through the cathedral,

it can reach speeds of up to 68 kilometers per hour.

As long as you take care to stay out of the way,

it's a fitting celebration for every pilgrim

who makes it to Santiago,

(somber church music)

Devout pilgrims, receive Holy Communion,

accompanied by the singing of hymns

and the baroque organ.

Transported by the sounds of the organ,

we travel to Germany.

The German tradition of organ making

is included on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

My route to the organ makers in Bonne on the Rhine River,

leads me through the Rhine Gorge.

It's unparalleled landscape, it's castles,

and it's rich history have earned it

the status of a World Heritage Site.

For 2000 years, the Rhine has been one

of the most important roots of cultural exchange

between the North and the South of Europe,

it has served alternately as a border,

and as a bridge between cultures,

but it has always played a vital role

in the history of Western Europe.

The traditions of wine growing and shipping

have deep roots in this region.

Nowhere else in the world will you find a denser array

of historic castles and palaces

than here on the banks of the Rhine.

In the high Middle Ages,

they were the heart of political and cultural life.

Each of these castles has its own story to tell,

they were customs offices, strategic strongholds,

or aristocratic estates occupied by robber barons, bishops,

or wealthy merchants.

My journey takes me a fair distance down rhe Rhine.

Organ making is a tradition that has been passed down,

and kept alive from generation to generation.

I'm keen to learn more about it in this workshop.

(relaxing dramatic music)

UNESCO includes German organ making, and German organ music,

on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list,

partly because Germany has the highest concentration

of organs anywhere in the world,

there were around 50,000 of them in this country,

and German composers like Buxtehude,

Pachelbel, Bach, and Handel

shaped the very nature of organ music around the world.

The organ was always a cosmopolitan instrument,

its history is global, but in Germany,

it seems to have become part of the country's identity

(tense dramatic music) (hammer thudding)

For more than 100 years,

the workshops owned by the Klais family in Bonn

have been producing organs for the entire world.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Mr. Klais, what makes the organ such a special instrument?

the most fascinating thing about an organ,

and what has made it so completely unique for 2,300 years

is an idea that the inventor, Ctesibius, came up with.

Separating the energy supply

from the playing of the instrument.

There's a bellows back here, I just have to lift it,

ad then I need to give it a little bit more air,

and there you go.

(slow organ music)

(tense organ music)

Alongside the beautiful pipes,

the intricate mechanisms that comprise the inner workings

of an organ with their thousands of valves

are the actual work of art here.

This is where the extraordinarily wide range of notes,

and sounds are generated.

(metal clanking)

Here a tin alloy is being made.

And I feel as if I'm in an alchemist's workshop,

the proportion of each metal and the alloy

influences the characteristics of the future pipe,

this early phase of production already determines

how the organ pipes will sound in the finished instrument.

Once the metal has cooled, it's cut into pieces,

which are then rolled into shapes around molds

called mandrels, and soldered together.

(metal thudding)

Each organ needs at least 150 of these,

and some need thousands.

The more pipes, the richer the tapestry of sounds.

(speaking in a foreign language)

I think we are at a huge advantage

in Germany, this is the land of Johann Sebastian Bach,

who played a decisive role in shaping organ music.

We also have a system of church music,

and very highly-trained, highly-qualified organists,

who bring this culture to the world.

I think you always have to consider organ making,

an organ music in parallel with the situation

we have in Germany.

It's not just about organ making,

it's what you make of it.

Of course, we could always hope for much more.

(tense organ music)

Since time immemorial,

churches have shaped the landscapes of Germany,

the pilgrimage church a Wies near Steingaden

in the Alpine Foothills of Bavaria

is one of the world's most famous Rococo churches,

and it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The cornerstone was laid in 1746

during the golden age of Rococo,

a variant of Baroque.

This organ here is a particular masterpiece.

The church weaves the playfulness and exuberance

of the late Baroque style

into one of Christianity's most important themes,

the salvation of man through the suffering of Jesus Christ,

the ceiling fresco depict Christ's return,

and the salvation of the world through God's mercy.

The gates of Heaven are a promise to the faithful.

(tense organ music)

But let's return to Europe's earthly treasures.

My next destination is the city of Paris.

When God gets bored in heaven,

he opens the window and contemplates

the boulevards of Paris,

the German poet, Henri Heine, once said.

Heine spent half his life in this city.

Paris was already a distinguished,

and important place in the Middle Ages,

but its status as the global yardstick for urban elegance,

and sophistication is a 19th century development.

The City of Lights, the City of Love, cliches without end,

and yet Paris remains a place of singular beauty,

especially this stretch along the banks of the Seine,

lined with graceful buildings and squares.

There's no other place in the world

where the history of an entire country

is concentrated in one city,

the way it is in Paris on the banks of the Seine.

The river is like a golden thread running through every era

from the Celtic Age to the Middle Ages,

from the French Revolution to the Industrial Revolution,

many of the events and ideas that changed the world

were born here in Paris.

French national poet, Victor Hugo,

went so far as to say that the entire world

was reflected in this city.

There's perhaps a tiny bit of French hubris in that opinion,

but it's not entirely wrong.

That Island over there, the Ile de la Cite,

is where it all began.

In the middle of the third century BC, the Celtic tribe,

the Parisii established a settlement there,

and this gold coin that went into circulation

among the Celts shortly afterwards,

seems like a harbinger of the city's great future.

There's a creature spreading its wings,

ready to take flight.

(tense dramatic music) (water whooshing)

The Celts named their city on the Seine, Lucotocia,

place of marshes.

They first made their living from fishing,

then they began charging tolls

to anyone traversing the river.

Their city had grown into an important trade hub.

Then Caesar conquered Gaul.

The Romans arrived, and they set up a colonial city

on the left bank of the Seine.

They called it Lutetia Parisiorum,

the swamp town of the Parisii.

(tense dramatic music)

In the fifth century, the Merovingians under King Clovis

drove the Romans out of Paris,

and the Ile de la Cite became Clovis' capital.

They began to build on the banks of the Seine.

in the Middle Ages, the city grew relentlessly.

The Ile de la Cite in the middle of the river,

became the heart of the city

where the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral now stands.

Great buildings like great mountains

are the work of centuries said Victor Hugo,

time is the architect, people the Masons.

(tense dramatic music)

Notre Dame has two towers,

and this cathedral also has two important meanings,

it's a sanctuary far removed from the day-to-day world,

and it's also a place of national solidarity for the French.

It's the heart, the epicenter from which every distance

to the capital is measured, and its bells rang out in 1944

when the city of Paris was liberated from the Nazis.

Notre Dame is also a reflection of European history,

because traces of every era of this continent

can be found in the cathedral,

and that's one of the reasons why the blaze

on the 15th of April, 2019 was such a shock

to so many people, me included.

(flame crackling)

The images of the burning cathedral

were broadcast around the world.

Construction started 850 years before the fire.

This mighty cathedral came into existence

just as the age of the Romanesque

was giving way to the Gothic,

and it took nearly 200 years to complete.

It's towers overlooked a city quickly evolving

into a metropolis and haven for philosophy and culture.

A university was founded, the Sorbonne,

theaters were built, and even famine and plague

did nothing to hinder Paris's rapid ascent.

The river remained the city's lifeline

ensuring the flow of trade,

this is when the famous Parisian self-confidence

began to coalesce.

They saw themselves as the center of Europe,

the King commissioned the construction of an elegant,

grandiose palace on the right bank of the Seine,

the Louvre.

The first historical mention of the Louvre

was in the year 1200.

At that time, there was already a royal castle here

on the banks of the Seine.

The French rulers were constantly expanding it

to create their feudal capital.

Francois I, Catherine of Medici

while she was queen of France, Henry IV,

and of course all the Louis.

After the French Revolution in 1793,

the former palace where the French Kings had resided

until 1682 was converted into a museum.

The artistic treasures,

once the property of the ruling families

now belonged to the people

They were put on public display for everyone to admire,

and added to the collection

were confiscated works of art

that had once belonged to the nobility and the clergy,

as well as pieces from all over Europe

that were the spoils of the Napoleonic Wars,

such quantities of art had never been gathered

in one place before.

For the first time, the entire art history

of the European continent was visible in one place.

In 1804, when Napoleon I was crowned emperor,

he also donated a work of art

that had formerly hung in his bedroom,

it was the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

(uptempo whimsical music)

The most famous painting of all time

has lost none of its allure over the centuries,

10 million people still come to the Louvre every year

to see the Mona Lisa and no French president

would dream of carrying her off to his private chambers

the way Napoleon did.

(uptempo traditional music)

Napoleon now rests in the Dôme des Invalides,

a monument built to last an eternity,

but Paris' most famous modern landmark

was never intended to remain in the city for that long.

An iron tower was constructed to Mark the 1889 World's Fair,

but it was supposed to be disassembled again

after the event.

At 300 meters, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure

in the world at the time,

few other structures in Europe have caused such controversy.

(tense dramatic music)

the 324-meter tall Eiffel Tower

was actually built to mark the 1889 Paris Expo,

in the simultaneous 100th anniversary

of the French Revolution.

After that, it was supposed to be dismantled.

In fact, most Parisians at the time felt that the tower,

which of course is today one of the city's major landmarks,

was a steel eyesore.

The author, Guy de Maupassant, who died in 1893,

often dined in the tower restaurant,

it was the only place in Paris where he wasn't forced

to look at the tower, he said.

Another World Expo was held in Paris in 1900.

It became the major arena for the technological race

that had kicked off with the Industrial Revolution,

(tense dramatic music)

The enormous glass roof of the Grand Palais Exposition Hall

was revolutionary at the time.

Incidentally 1900 was also the year

the Paris Metro opened to the public.

The Eiffel Tower is a powerful symbol of this era

of confident modernity.

The citizens of the French Republic

read the names of their most important researchers,

and inventors stamped in iron,

and they saw themselves as the most progressive nation

in Europe.

(tense dramatic music)

And indeed it was a Frenchmen named Denis Papin,

who did much to explore the principles

behind the steam powered engine back in 1690,

but it wasn't until 74 years later

that Scotsman, James Watt,

found an efficient way of replacing the physical exertion

of humans with steam power,

Watts' invention was fundamental to the changes

wrought by the Industrial Revolution.

It was Watt incidentally who coined the term horsepower.

The world was entering an era of unprecedented acceleration.

Divining the mysteries of nature

have been an integral facet

of European culture since antiquity,

but in great Britain in particular researchers and inventors

found ways to put their new found knowledge

to immediate practical use,

and it all started with a mechanical weaving loom.

(loom whirring) (tense dramatic music)

Until the 18th century,

the only way to increase production of goods

was to employ more people.

Now the physical labor of a single person

could be multiplied exponentially, almost infinitely.

This was the mechanism at the heart

of the Industrial Revolution.

It all started in England.

Manchester grew into the most important industrial center

in the world.

The textile industry was mainly responsible

for the city's boom.

Manchester's population exploded,

and magnificent buildings sprang up one after another.

Manchester was dramatic enough,

but it was just the beginning.

With the rise of heavy industry,

came the greatest shift in living standards,

since human beings established settlements,

and started farming.

(metal clanking)

Iron and steel foundries sprang up

wherever there was iron ore or coal,

the lower regions, Saarland and Silesia in Germany

are good examples.

And one of these iron works,

the Volklingen Hutte has been named

a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an important step,

for the first time an iron foundry

was placed on the same footing as cathedrals and pyramids,

and in this place, you can still feel the incredible power

of the Industrial Revolution.

It was an historical turning point, not just for Europe,

but for the entire world.

(tense dramatic music)

This is the only place where we can still see

the blast furnaces that once fueled

the Industrial Revolution.

The Volklingen Ironworks in Germany

just across the border from France

is the world's only fully-preserved Ironworks

from the golden age of the iron and steel industry

in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The history of this ironworks

is also a piece of European history.

Volklingen was situated

on the once-troubled political boundary

between Germany and France.

The coal for the iron works came from the German Saarland,

but certain types of iron ore could only be found

just a few kilometers away in French Lorraine.

In the 19th and 20th centuries,

this strategic border land was repeatedly fought over.

It was the need to overcome this bitter competition

over strategic resources that led to the establishment

of the European Coal and Steel Community

shortly after the end of World War II,

the first step towards the European community.

Coal, iron, and steel, the building blocks of Europe,

the colossal machines of Volklingen still bear witness

to this history today.

In the 1830s and '40s with the Industrial Revolution

in full swing, urbanization, pollution, disease,

and political unrest fueled an interest in green spaces.

Reformers argued that urban gardens

would beautify the landscape, sweep away disease,

and refine working class tastes.

In London, the Royal Botanical Gardens

were opened to the public in 1840.

Some years later, the striking Palm House was built,

a result of improved glass

and iron manufacturing techniques.

(water flowing)

Walking around this place,

it's difficult not to be reminded

of the biblical Garden of Eden

where supposedly all the plants in the world

were in one place.

Is that part of the story of how gardens like this

came to be?

Well, I think certainly Kew aims to have plants

from all around the world.

Wild plants, plants collected from wild places.

I perhaps pick up upon a different story from the Bible,

which is the concept of the ark,

where the animals were led into a place of protection

from the deluge, and one way of thinking about Kew,

and the wild plant diversity we have here

is as a precious ark bobbing around in a turbulent world,

protecting these plants.

Some of the plants in this building are extinct

in the wild now, some of the projects that Kew works on

about reintroducing plants back into their natural habitats,

because of habitat degradation, or extinction in the wild.

So perhaps an ark, I would rely upon

as a better metaphor for the work that Kew does.

(slow relaxing music)

Nearly 180,000 living plants,

including 1,300 threatened species

can be found in the botanical collections of Kew Gardens,

a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How are all these beautiful plants connected

to the dark arts of Imperial expansion?

The world's largest botanical garden

also captures the essence of an entire era

in the history of Europe.

Knowledge was power, and power led to new knowledge.

Already in the 18th century,

Europeans were bringing plants back from their many colonies

to the continent where they'd never been seen before.

The plants were studied in great detail here at Kew Gardens,

and similar locations around Europe,

and the task of researchers

was to discern their practical uses.

One interesting example is the Cinchona,

known colloquially as the fever tree,

which is native to Peru.

A substance can be extracted from its bark,

which can be used to make a medicine to treat malaria,

quinine, this medicine from a South American plant

allowed the Europeans to make further inroads into Asia,

and Africa, where malaria was endemic,

and then knowledge of foreign plants,

some of which were collected here in this greenhouse,

lead to the farming of tea in Ceylon,

and coffee and South America.

(tense dramatic music) (birds chirping)

Over the centuries.

Kew Gardens has become an important center

for botanical research.

The fungarian, for example,

contains an estimated 1.25 million dried specimens

from every part of the globe,

and reflects the importance of fungi as providers of food,

medicines, enzymes and essential ecosystem services.

The collection is the largest, and one of the oldest,

and most scientifically important in the world.

Because they go on bark. As they would.

Ester, you are the queen of a world of fungi here at Kew.

What is special about fungi?

What makes them different from other living creatures.

Fungi are a very distinct group of organisms

completely apart from animals and plants,

they have actually their own kingdom, kingdom fungi,

and some of the main features that define them,

and distinguish them from the animal and plant kingdoms

are weird things, for example,

how they digest foods,

they secrete enzymes into the environment.

They resolve the organic matter,

and they absorb it back into their cells.

Nobody else does something like that, it's quite strange,

you don't have an external stomach digesting,

that's what the fungi do.

(tense dramatic music)

And there is another fascinating place

at Kew, the herbarium,

it contains millions of preserved specimens,

and enormous wealth of information for researchers

all over the world.

Plants that have been collected from all continents

over the last 300 years,

specimens that can be used to provide samples of DNA

to study relationships, and evolutionary processes,

among the oldest, a specimen sent from the Andes in Ecuador,

by German naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt.

(tense dramatic music)

How many samples do you have altogether

at the herbarium at Kew?

In the herbarium, we have about 7 million.

We don't know exactly how many we have,

we've never counted them, so it's a bit of a,

you know, estimate, but yeah,

about 7 million and we collect them

to understand plant diversity.

So something that Kew is very good at doing is going out,

finding endemic, or endangered, or very useful species,

and getting their seeds,

and putting the seeds in the seed bank.

So we have an amazing seed bank down at Wakehurst Place,

and that's sort of, you know, a bank too,

that we can draw on to help put species

back in the wild.

(tense dramatic music) (birds chirping)

But it's not only about the past,

individual plants are preserved at Kew Gardens,

so that future generations can study biodiversity.

Allow me to introduce Encephalartos Woodii,

the loneliest plant in the world.

It's been growing here in Kew Gardens since 1899.

It's a cycad, and originally comes from South Africa.

These plants died out long ago in their homeland,

but this specimen here is one of the last in the world,

a male plant,

and this means a female plant must be found

in order to keep this species alive.

Unfortunately, despite searching far and wide,

researchers have thus far been unable to find one.

Luckily with proper care,

these plants can live for a very long time,

in the meanwhile experts at desperately continuing

their search to find a girlfriend for this tree,

and maybe one day his long years of solitude

will come to an end,

but one thing is clear, in the face of climate change,

and ever deepening human encroachment

into the natural world.

Europe's botanical gardens are increasingly becoming

treasure troves where visitors can admire species of plants

that are extinct elsewhere,

and that of course is more valuable than all the diamonds

in the world.

(uptempo dramatic music) (birds chirping)

Europe is the second smallest continent on the planet.

It's really only a peninsula on the western end of Asia,

but Europe's diversity is unparalleled.

Its rich cultural heritage born out of a turbulent history,

belongs to the entire world,

and the Europeans bear the great responsibility

of tending to it,

but Europe's treasures are not just in the distant past.

A politically United Europe is a cultural heritage

in its own right.

One that must be protected,

and preserved for future generations.

(tense dramatic music)

(uptempo dramatic music)