Original subtitles

(calm music)

- [Colm] Madrid, a city of pride and passion,

and at its heart, a museum with secrets dark and strange,

a lethal lost art,

a clock possessed by the devil,

(spirit howling)

and a subterranean quest for the riches of Spain,

(suspenseful orchestral music)

secrets hidden in plain sight inside Madrid's Palacio Real.

(mysterious music)

In Madrid, there is no building more imposing

or more magnificent than this.

It's the Royal Palace, or in Spanish, Palacio Real.

For centuries, it has been at the center

of Spain's political and social life,

from the Bourbon monarchs through the dark years

of dictator Francisco Franco

(crowd cheering)

to its present incarnation as a working palace

and extraordinary museum.

In what were once royal ballrooms and bedrooms,

royal possessions are now on public display.

A king wore this armor.

A queen told the time by this clock.

And a royal retainer commissioned this fresco

to remind visitors of how Spain achieved its power.

It shows Christopher Columbus giving the planet

to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

Thanks to Columbus, conquistadors had a new world to conquer

and treasure to send back to Spain by the galleon load

to gild the ceilings of the palace.

(calm orchestral music)

Historian Marcos Martinon-Torres specializes

in the era of the Spanish Empire.

(calm guitar music)

- One of the aspects I've been researching

is the material reason behind the splendor

and the power of Spain.

- [Colm] Marcos believes that the foundation

of Spanish wealth was not silver or gold

but a third element, hidden in plain sight in this room.

What it is and how it shaped

Spain's destiny is a museum secret.

(crystal chiming)

The investigation begins in the Spanish town

of Almaden at the bottom of a mine shaft.

(suspenseful music)

Far beneath the ground, Marcos navigates tunnels

dug hundreds of years ago.

The miners weren't looking for silver or gold.

- So this is what the miners were after.

This is cinnabar,

this red rock that we see here running in a vein.

Only here would you get such high amounts

of this precious red stone.

It was crushed to create bright red pigments.

Some of those frescoes we've seen at the Palacio Real

are actually made with this pigment.

And that's one of the reasons that made cinnabar so special,

so appealing to different cultures throughout time.

- [Colm] But it wasn't cinnabar's color

that shaped Spain's destiny.

16th century Spaniards learned that it can be transformed.

- Somehow, they figured out that by heating the cinnabar,

they could evaporate the sulfur.

They would be left behind with tiny droplets

of what we now know was mercury,

this fascinating liquid metal.

- [Colm] Today we know that mercury gives off toxic vapor,

which is why the Almaden mine was closed in 2000.

- We now can explain it in scientific terms.

But also in the 16th century, people would see

that people would go mad and die

(man screaming)

after working with mercury.

- [Colm] 16th century alchemists

believed the risk was worth it.

Some thought mercury was the fabled philosopher's stone

that could turn lead into gold,

while others discovered the element's real magic.

Mercury can liberate precious metals from low-grade ore,

and that would become the lucrative solution to a problem.

- During the first few centuries of Spanish expansion

into America, it seemed relatively easy to just go there

and exploit the richest gold and silver ores,

but very soon after the Spanish start exploiting that,

they found that the richest veins,

the riches ores had been exhausted.

So they had poorer veins that required more labor

to extract a smaller amount of silver.

- [Colm] In what is now Bolivia,

and what was then a Spanish colony,

there is a mountain of low-grade silver ore.

Here, Spanish engineers scaled up the alchemical process.

While natives were forced to work in the mines

bringing silver ore to the surface,

mules plodded in circles on a stone patio

to mix seawater, silver ore, and mercury.

- It was through this trampling that the mercury

would eventually amalgamate with the silver so that it would

finally leave the silver behind for you to collect.

- [Colm] Each kilogram of silver

required two kilograms of mercury

from the Almaden mine in Spain.

- 1/3 of all the mercury ever produced

across the world came from this mine.

There was a massive logistical enterprise

to send these massive amounts of mercury to America.

- [Colm] Upping mercury production

came at a tragic human cost.

- Tremors, severe pains, lots of people

are reported as going insane, and of course,

many of them as well would die prematurely.

- [Colm] In the Americas,

the problem was even more devastating.

(man coughing)

- The patio process was particularly toxic

because you generated a lot of vapor

and a lot of mercury compounds.

- [Colm] Historians estimate that over several centuries,

eight million miners died to produce precious metals

which would have a value today of $30 trillion.

- Without the mercury, we wouldn't have had

the gold and silver that made us rich back then.

It's very difficult to overestimate

the importance of mercury to the history of Spain.

- [Colm] The element that shaped Spain's destiny

is hidden in plain sight

in the Palacio Real's Hall of Mirrors.

- If you wanted to make a mirror,

until almost the 20th century,

you needed transparent glass and then a reflective backing

which was made of mercury combined with tin in an amalgam.

So when I look at this mirror and see my face,

I'm seeing myself, of course, but I'm also seeing mercury.

- [Colm] The mirror makers sealed the glass

to protect the royals from toxic mercury vapor.

Eight million Spanish subjects weren't so lucky.

(powerful orchestral music)

Next on Museum Secrets, the lost art of the sword master.

(mysterious music)

The Palacio Real, the Royal Palace of Spain,

stands in a city with a glorious past.

It attracts more than a million visitors every year.

Today, two people from New York City

plan to do more than take in the sights of Madrid.

Ramon Martinez and his wife, Jeannette Acosta-Martinez,

are the world's foremost experts

in a unique style of fencing

that was practiced in Spain three centuries ago.

(swords clanking)

They're trying to revive this lost art and solve a mystery.

On this plaza, on a summer day in 1646,

17 swordsmen lined up to accept the challenge

of a man named Don Miguel Perez de Mendoza.

And it would seem that Mendoza was a fool

because in fencing, to defeat even one opponent

requires the utmost stamina.

To face three challengers would be exhausting.

And as for defeating 17, that would seem to be impossible.

Why did Mendoza challenge so many?

And how did he hope to survive?

Ramon may be in a unique position to uncover these secrets

because he and Mendoza have a few things in common,

starting with Mendoza's neighborhood.

- This was a very dangerous area in the 17th century,

and anything can happen.

You had all kinds of violent people,

you cut throats in any corner.

You had other swordsmen.

You never know if there was a rivalry or not.

This is put up or shut up right here in this neighborhood.

- [Colm] To Ramon, these mean streets are familiar.

- I was born and raised in The Bronx, New York.

More exact, I come from the South Bronx,

which is probably one of the most

dangerous areas in New York City.

When we're talking about 16th century

or 17th century Madrid as compared

to the South Bronx of the '60s and '70s,

I would say it was pretty much the same.

I started carrying a blade when I was like seven years old,

not so much for being violent,

which is the last thing on Earth

that you would even look for,

but you'd use it as a tool, as a method of self-defense,

and everybody had a blade.

- [Colm] In old Madrid, the blade of choice was the rapier,

like the ones on display in the Palacio Real.

- What you see here is a collection

of rapiers that were typical of the mid 17th century.

These weapons are the weapons of personal defense.

This would've been the Glock of its time,

light, lethal, extremely maneuverable.

- [Colm] Don Miguel Perez de Mendoza owned such a weapon,

but so did each of his 17 challengers.

So why did Mendoza think he had an edge?

(suspenseful music)

Ramon believes the answer in is Spain's National Library.

For over 30 years, Ramon has studied rare documents

that have allowed him to recreate

Mendoza's uniquely Spanish style of swordplay.

It was known simply as the skill, but in Spanish, destreza.

- All fencing schools are effective and deadly,

but what made this unique was that it was not

based upon preconceived techniques.

It was founded upon a profound understanding

of spatial relationships and movement.

Destreza made a swordsman very cold blooded,

detached, his adversaries nothing more

than a geometric problem that he has to solve.

- [Colm] As a well-known destreza master,

Mendoza couldn't walk through Madrid

without constant challenges from wannabes.

So he decided to prove once and for all

that he was the best.

- He asked King Philip IV permission

to post cartels throughout the kingdom

as an open challenge to any swordsman who would face him.

So he was answered by 17 swordsmen,

and he faced 'em all in front of the king.

- [Colm] As for how Mendoza fought that day,

Ramon and Jeanette hope to demonstrate

with a destreza master class.

(speaking in foreign language)

- We'll begin with a salute.

Destreza has actually nothing to do

with what most people are familiar with,

which is modern sport fencing.

One of the most blatant difference is

that modern sport fencing,

they note all the combat is linear.

They conduct all of that on a strip.

She follows me, maintaining the distance.

Destreza combat takes place on an imaginary circle

that moves along the ground with the combatants.

So I'm following her.

I'm being very careful not to come too close

or too far away, but I don't have to stay there.

I can switch directions, now she has to follow me,

and she can do the same thing to me.

And the reality is, you want to deceive your adversary.

You want to confuse him.

Don't be like a cat stalking a mouse

because I see some of you doing this, you're stalking.

- Yeah. (students laugh)

- No, you have to be serene.

Avoid any tension, avoid any excessive actions of the legs

because you will get tired very quickly.

And once you start to move, you're not--

- [Colm] An opponent's body language is key.

- Take your time.

You have to gaze and see not only the blade,

you have to see the positioning of the person's shoulders,

the person's feet, how he's holding his arm.

You are observing constantly what the other person's doing.

It has to do with cold-blooded determination

and being able to solve that problem,

which that person is a problem for you

because he's trying to kill you.

Okay, that's a problem that you don't want.

- [Colm] Ramon believes that Mendoza used

the same techniques when he faced

17 challengers, one by one.

- But he would've waited for the adversary

to initiate so that they would basically

give themselves away, their intention.

You see him in front of you,

when you go to reach to touch him?

He's gone, like a ghost.

- [Challenger] Oh, oh!

- [Colm] So while traditional swashbuckling swordsmen

move fast and furiously, destreza involves calculation

but far less exertion.

A traditional swordsman may strike many times

while a destreza master may only have to strike once.

- [Challenger] Oh, oh!

- [Colm] In the plaza where Mendoza fought,

Ramon and Jeanette can spar for hours

without breaking a sweat,

and so it seems did Mendoza himself

as he dispatched one challenger after the other.

(sword whooshes) (challenger grunts)

And when Mendoza discovered he was the last man standing,

Ramon believes he knows what he was thinking.

- It was great, I wish I could keep going.

Bring on 17 more! (both laughing)

- [Colm] Beside each of Mendoza's fallen challengers

was a lethal weapon, much like the ones in the Palacio Real.

Even the finest rapier is no protection

against a master of destreza.

(calm flamenco guitar)

(eerie music)

Next on Museum Secrets, a clock possessed by the devil.

(spirit howling)

(mysterious music)

This morning at the Palacio Real,

this curator can look forward to a long day

because his job is to wind the clocks.

(clocks chiming)

Here, there are 700 timepieces dating from the 18th century.

The collection was started by King Ferdinand VI

who is remembered for being indecisive

except in his love for his wife, Maria, and for clocks.

- [Colm] Collecting clocks became a royal obsession,

and curator Amelia Aranda has the paper trail to prove it.

- [Colm] Making a clock for a king was highly lucrative,

but for one young clockmaker,

it nearly became a life-threatening experience.

(man screaming)

The reason why is a museum secret.

Our story begins in 1758 in Geneva, Switzerland,

where a young genius named Pierre Jaquet-Droz

decided to create the world's most advanced timepiece.

And it would do much more than tell time.

While restoring the clock,

curator Manuel Santolaya Sanchez

discovered the intricate mechanisms

that Droz crafted to remember musical melodies.

(calm music)

(bells chiming)

(bird tweeting)

(flute whistling)

- [Colm] To refine the clock's logic,

he pioneered the mathematical formulas

we now call algorithms.

(clock ticking)

When the clock was finished, Droz loaded it

on a cart and traveled overland to Spain.

- [Colm] Droz hoped to win a royal commission

from the influential monarch

that would make his name and his career.

But when he entered the palace,

King Ferdinand was not at home.

His much-loved wife had died suddenly,

and the king had retired to this gloomy

medieval castle to mourn.

As Droz prepared to unveil his creation,

he must've worried that the king

would be in no mood for clocks.

He waited nervously for the king's reaction.

(flute whistles)

(king laughs)

- [Colm] But while the king was delighted,

his Catholic advisors were not.

(advisor whispering)

To them, the lifelike automata

could only be the work of the devil.

(spirit howling)

They ordered Droz to provide an explanation

or face the inquisition.

Droz was forced to open the mechanism

to prove it wasn't driven by the devil's magic,

just wires and bellows and gears.

The churchmen agreed that Droz would escape

the inquisitor's scrutiny this time,

and the king agreed to purchase the clock

for a king's ransom.

(clock ticking)

(clock chiming)

- [Colm] When Droz got back home to Switzerland,

he turned his attention from animated clocks

to the automata themselves,

creating mechanical androids, and in an achievement

long ahead of its time, a programmable mechanical hand

that could write a complete sentence.

(whimsical music)

It's probably a good thing that this wonder

was never seen by Spain's inquisitors

because if it had been, Pierre Jaquet-Droz

may have died before his time.

(fire crackling) (man screaming)

(lively flamenco guitar music)

Up next, the secret of the flamenco master.

(mysterious music)

(calm guitar music)

In the Palacio Real, one gallery is devoted to music.

For centuries, Spain has been best known

for the sound of the guitar, especially when the guitar

is in the hands of a master of flamenco.

(lively flamenco music)

On most evenings after the Palacio closes,

scores of tourists stroll just next door

to one of Madrid's best-known flamenco clubs.

(lively flamenco music)

The rhythms are mesmerizing, and the performers are intense.

But there are rarely any local people in the audience.

Is this flamenco authentic?

Or is there a real flamenco that tourists don't see?

These secrets are of personal interest

to a woman named Yinka Graves.

She was born in England, but she's come to Madrid

to discover the real flamenco.

- I started taking flamenco lessons

just as a hobby, sort of once a week,

and I suppose flamenco, maybe because of its complexity,

once you start getting into it, it sort of takes over you.

- [Colm] Every day, Yinka enters this inconspicuous building

and climbs the stairs to the famous

flamenco school called Amor de Dios.

(calm flamenco music)

The facility may look tired, but the teachers aren't.

- Most of them are top flamenco dancers.

You know, this is the creme de la creme.

If you want to learn flamenco,

this is the best place to come to.

- [Colm] Here, there is little evidence

of the tourist image of flamenco,

except for some posters from the 1960s.

Then, Spain was a poor nation

ruled by dictator Francisco Franco.

He ordered Spanish gypsies known as gitanos

to make their traditions, including flamenco,

more tourist friendly.

- That image of the flamenco dancer,

the castanets, the polka dot dresses

as something that would sell Spain to the foreign world

was something that was created during Franco's time.

- [Colm] At Yinka's school, there are no castanets

and frilly dresses, only clapping hands

and an improvised song called a solea.

(singing in foreign language)

- This is almost like the mother of flamenco.

This is the base, this is, these songs used to speak

of a sort of suffering and lament and so on.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Colm] The pain expressed in the solea

is rooted in history.

Since their caravans reached Spain in the 15th century,

gitanos have been an oppressed minority,

ghettoized and persecuted.

They were forbidden to perform in public

until King Charles III passed his leniency edict in 1783.

(calm music)

From then on, the gitanos were free to perform

but allowed few other ways to make a living.

Many still live in poverty.

(singing in foreign language)

When the gitano experience is expressed in song,

Yinka's role is to translate the feeling into movement.

For a person who's not a gitano, this can be a challenge.

- It's difficult if you haven't really been there with them.

You know, they've got that sort of long history together

to really, you know, yeah, sort of do it justice.

- [Colm] But when Yinka speaks with the school's

elder gitano statesman, Enrique Pantoja,

he tells her that the key to flamenco is not race

but something called duende.

- [Colm] Teachers encourage their students

to discover duende on their own.

- It's about you really finding where you feel comfortable,

'cause ultimately flamenco's something

that you teach yourself to a certain extent.

(lively flamenco music) (heels tapping)

- [Colm] To further Yinka's progress,

her teachers have arranged an informal session

with a family of flamenco luminaries.

(singing in foreign language)

- That was amazing, for one, and a real honor.

It was like, my gosh, I can't believe

that I'm here with these people.

They really are the people who live it and have lived it

from the time that they were really young.

(singing in foreign language)

These are the masters, these are the people

who have the experience and so on,

and you're on the fringes of that.

Now, the lovely thing was that they,

you know, they opened their circle there.

But nevertheless, for me, that was really

imposing to a certain extent.

- [Colm] Yinka hangs back, but then the sad solea changes

into a song of celebration.

- These are the songs that you'll hear at gypsy weddings.

When people get together, this is what they sing.

And you can see that in the energy of the dancing.

It's really, really very powerful and so much fun.

- [Colm] The family's duende has inspired

Yinka to find her own.

And as Enrique tells his students,

inspired flamenco is real flamenco,

(hands clapping) (feet stomping)

whether or not it's on a tourist-friendly stage.

(upbeat music)

Up next, the secret of surviving an Apache attack.

(mysterious music)

(stately orchestral music)

In the Hall of Armor, historical technologist Andre Renier

is looking for a new challenge.

He has spent 10 years recreating armor

made of steel and discovering how

it would've performed on the battlefield.

(horse neighing) (hooves clomping)

But today, something much less shiny has caught his eye.

- [Andre] What is this?

- This is a very special kind of shield.

It is called an adarga.

So it means, this is in Spanish a word that comes Arabic,

from (speaks in foreign language), it means leather.

They were only used in Spain during the Islamic dynasties.

- [Colm] In the 15th century, when Spaniards rebelled

against Islamic rule, their Muslim adversaries,

the Moors, fended off arrows, lances, and swords

with leather shields like this one.

(lively orchestral music)

- If an arrow or a lance goes inside,

passes the leather, when you take it out,

the leather will be closed immediately again.

- So it's a self-healing--

- Yes. - Shield.

- [Colm] As Spain gained its independence,

shields and armor evolved.

Soldiers and horses, sometimes even children,

were encased in shells of steel.

By the 16th century,

European soldiers started using muskets,

(musket fire explodes)

making the leather adarga obsolete.

Or was it?

Andre hopes to uncover this museum secret.

The story begins in Tucson, Arizona.

Today, it's an artistic enclave

where people of many cultures get along.

But in the 18th century, that wasn't the case.

The Spanish built this fort

to protect their farms and settlers.

What they feared was the Apaches.

The Apaches were buffalo hunters of the Plains.

Short of food, they resorted to raiding Spanish towns.

(Apaches shouting) (suspenseful music)

When Spanish soldiers battled the Apaches,

they discovered that European rules did not apply.

The Spaniards were trained to charge in one direction,

while the Apaches rode circles around them.

Well-aimed arrows got by the Spaniards' shields.

Against the Apaches, heavy steel was a liability.

They needed a different approach.

(calm guitar music)

Back in Spain, the military had a cavalry training exercise

called the (speaks in foreign language) or the cane game.

(horse neighs)

(rider shouts)

It's reminiscent of battles that Spaniards fought

against the Muslim dynasty centuries before.

(riders shouting)

Each trainee fends off blows with a leather shield

modeled on the ancient Muslim adarga.

(riders shouting)

- The cane game was an excellent training tool

to train soldiers because going in a straight line

against an opponent like a traditional joust

doesn't prepare you for real-world battle.

This requires you to turn the horse

while engaging your enemy.

- [Colm] As news of the Apache wars reached Spain,

someone realized that the cane game's adept maneuvers

and leather shields might have a place

on their New World battlefield.

(riders shouting) (hooves clomping)

In a museum in Toledo, one hour south of Madrid,

Andre discovers evidence of other leather shields

that look like smaller versions of the Muslim adarga

made well after they became obsolete in Spain.

- [Andre] Where did this object come from?

- [Colm] To find out how effective

these shields might have been against the Apache,

Andre intends to recreate an adarga and put it to a test.

- The original materials, which would've been Arabian

or Northern African animal hides simply are not available.

In this case, we used modern vegetable-tanned leathers

and rawhides, which this is actually just raw hide.

The rawhide has this stiff flexibility

that allows it to almost become like cartilage.

- [Colm] But could it have stopped an Apache arrow?

Andre has decided there is only one way to find out.

- We're actually going to have arrows fired at me

by Kember Sparr, he's gonna fire arrows

at me as I ride past.

(suspenseful music)

Yeah!

- [Colm] In multiple tests,

the adarga stops the arrow every time.

On the chaotic New World battlefield,

Andre thinks it would've been particularly effective.

- Normally when you're on a horse,

the shield's only right here.

You can really, you can't move a whole lot.

You're kinda stuck.

With an adarga, you can go completely over your back.

It is an amazing equestrian defense

because it doesn't weigh much.

It allows you the flexibility to defend and stab,

defend, stab, stab over here.

And as I come at them, if I'm low like this,

I came come right at them and literally move my horse

away from the oncoming arrows if I'm far enough away.

I can actually see the arrow coming and just slide,

I just have to slide a little bit.

And really this is a really amazing little weapon system.

- [Colm] The adarga would remain in active service

until the early 19th century

when the Apaches acquired rifles.

Against Apache sharpshooters,

the adarga's revival was short lived.

Like all military technology,

it was destined to become obsolete.

(calm orchestral music)

Up next, the secret of a fascist's defeat.

(mysterious music)

For a few days every year, the Royal Palace of Spain,

the Palacio Real, closes its doors to the public

for state occasions.

This man is the king of Spain, Juan Carlos,

perhaps the world's friendliest constitutional monarch.

- He's very tactile, he's very physical.

He will embrace people and touch them

and bring them in in a very unique way.

I've never seen any head of state do that.

- [Colm] Juan Carlos is the genial monarch today,

but there was a time when Spain had no king at all.

(crowd shouting)

In 1931, when republicans declared a new democratic state,

Spain's king exiled himself and his family to Italy.

Five years later, Spain was torn apart

by a devastating three-year civil war

(cannon fire exploding)

after which General Francisco Franco seized power.

Through World War II and for 30 years thereafter,

Franco ruled Spain like an absolute monarch,

even though he wasn't one.

And yet, in the 21st century,

Spain has a hereditary king once more.

How has the Spanish monarchy returned to power?

That is our museum secret.

Our story begins in Rome in 1948.

Juan Carlos was 10 years old, a prince in exile

with no prospects of becoming a real king.

And then his father sent him to Spain to be Franco's ward.

- He justified this extraordinary decision

to hand his son over to the dictator

on the grounds that only if Juan Carlos was educated

in Spain would he ever be a viable candidate to the throne.

- [Colm] But Franco did not give

Juan Carlos any royal authority.

He kept all power for himself while enforcing loyalty

and Catholic morality with an iron fist.

- This was clearly a dictatorship which lacked

every fundamental political freedom.

Every form of organized political opposition was banned.

We don't actually have a figure,

but certainly dozens of thousands of people

were executed for their political beliefs.

(woman sobbing)

- [Colm] Often dissenters were arrested

in the dead of night, never to be seen again.

And those who asked questions about them also disappeared.

(eerie music)

Even today, the fate of many remains unknown,

including a man who opposed Franco's rule

and was abducted when his daughter, Bianca,

was just a little girl.

Her family created this memorial,

even though his body was never found.

Bianca hopes journalist Victor Lancina

can shed some light on her father's death.

- [Colm] As Juan Carlos grew to adulthood,

he could've spoken out on behalf

of those victimized by Franco, but he didn't.

Instead, he took a military commission

and became the smiling face of Franco's ruthless regime.

- Some of his most controversial appearances

took place in the Royal Palace

on the balcony just outside here.

However, if you look carefully,

Don Juan Carlos always seems distinctly uncomfortable.

We also know that he became increasingly active

in seeking out Spaniards' opinions.

He would contact experts, journalists,

economists, and so on, and talk to them

in private about Spain's problems.

- [Colm] Franco's advisors suspected Juan Carlos

might be plotting to overthrow their leader.

Spies monitored his every move,

but never did he betray a hint of disloyalty.

And so, an aging Franco announced

that Juan Carlos would rule Spain after he was gone.

(crowd applauding)

- The last few people Franco spoke to

all received the same advice from him,

and the advice was, "Support the king."

- [Colm] When Franco died on November 20th, 1975,

and was laid in state in the Palacio Real,

most Spaniards believed that nothing would change

when Juan Carlos took power.

But in his first address as king,

he declared his intention to reject

Franco's authoritarian vision.

(crowd applauding)

- [Colm] The king enacted decrees that set Spain

on a path towards democracy.

(crowd chanting)

- [Christopher] He was, in fact, much less subservient

to Franco than was generally accepted.

- [Colm] But democracy was not his only goal.

- Kings aren't like the rest of us.

A king has to think about the dynasty.

Dynastic continuity is ultimately

the be all and the end all of his existence.

His approach to all of this was quite utilitarian.

Don Juan Carlos realized that the only way

for the restoration to succeed

was to make the monarchy compatible with democracy.

- [Colm] And that's why the Spanish monarchy survives

and why the children of the Franco era

have the freedom to discover what happened to their fathers.

- [Colm] At this place of execution

or in the gilded halls of the palace,

whenever light shines on the past,

the future appears a little less uncertain.

(lively orchestral music)

For every mystery we reveal, far more must remain unspoken,

secrets of wealth and power

and of passionate inspiration

hidden in plain sight

inside the Palacio Real.

(lively orchestral music)