(suspenseful music) ♪ (narrator) Fortress.

Prisons.

♪ Towers.

♪ The castles have witnessed our history for centuries.

In Europe over 100,000 are still standing thousand years later.

♪ Let's visit the most spectacular and most mysterious castles.

♪ We will discover the secrets that are hidden behind their walls and we will relive their long lasting legends.

♪ (dramatic music) ♪ Can a marvel like this cost a king his life?

♪ The 13th of June 1886.

In Lake Starnberg, Bavaria two bodies appear floating on the water.

One of them is the psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden.

♪ The other, his patient, King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Also known as The Mad King.

The official cause of death?

Suicide.

But was it really suicide?

Or a murder?

♪ September 2020.

Every year thousands of people turn this marvelous location into Germany's most visited tourist attraction.

Neuschwanstein Castle.

♪ What is the mystery that links this huge castle and the two corpses floating on a lake?

♪ Ludwig II was the last king of the small independent state of Bavaria.

He was an eccentric character.

Obsessed with beauty and a lover of art and of some artists.

One of them was the composure and poet Richard Wagner who became a friend.

(Jonas) For Ludwig this friendship is a bit like a replacement of a father.

Wagner was older than him and so he was looking for a father figure in this great composure who's work he admired and he saw him as a companion who he would recreate this medieval world with.

(narrator) Ludwig II was captivated at the age of 16 when he attended one of Wagner's operas for the first time.

The opera was Lohengrin.

A fairytale forming part of the Swan Trilogy.

(lively music) This may have been the case because a few years later he dedicated all his effort and the kingdom's money to building Neuschwanstein.

Which means "New Stone Swan."

(eerie music) ♪ (Jonas) Neuschwanstein was built specifically as a place where he wanted Wagner to come.

He built this as a monument to Wagner's operas and to their friendship.

The tragedy is that Wagner never set foot in that castle.

♪ (narrator) Neuschwanstein is not music but many consider it a work of art.

It's composition of walls and towers seeks harmony with the rivers and mountains that surround it.

♪ It's construction adheres to the canyons of the romantic current in architecture.

Perhaps this is why the building has no defensive installations.

But it does have 200 ornately decorated rooms.

(orchestral music) ♪ Frescos depicting prowess in war Nibelungen legends.

♪ And royal halls fit for the role.

♪ Although the golden thrown was never actually installed.

♪ The royal bedroom alone needed the work of 14 carpenters for four years.

♪ He wanted to be that prince who's slaying dragons and rescuing princesses.

You know, the circumstances of this life, the times of which he lived in really didn't allow for that.

(narrator) Ludwig II personally directed the declaration and spared no expense.

He had abandoned his responsibilities to focus on his romantic work.

♪ Apparently, he wanted to go down in history as the creator of an enormously transcendent work of art.

With the kingdom's money.

(Leo) He was an extremely wealthy nobleman but even that was too much.

(narrator) He was so obsessed with the castle that the doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

(Jonas) He started borrowing money and that became a problem.

He was a parliamentary monarch.

He wasn't an absolute monarch who could just decide what to do.

He had to ask parliament for money.

So he asked them for a loan and they refused and as a matter of fact, the decided to declare him insane.

(eerie music) (Leo) He was never seen by a doctor and the whole report has this very dubious background to it.

(narrator) A few days later, a group of men loyal to the Munich government arrested him and took him to a stately home on the shores of a lake where he appeared drowned the following day.

♪ Was it suicide?

As officially stated.

Or were there vested interests in killing him and placing a successor on the thrown?

(Jonas) The fact that she believed that, she would tell people this shows you that immediately after his death people just couldn't accept that he drowned.

If he drowned it is quite likely that it was not accidental because he was a very strong swimmer, had been since childhood.

So either it was a suicide or it was a murder or maybe a mix of both.

♪ (narrator) Ludwig II never saw his great work finished.

Although, it was open to the public a few months later the design was so complicated that it took almost 20 years to finish.

Whether mad or a genius, Ludwig II left this unique, picture postcard as his legacy.

Neuschwanstein is Germany's most famous and recognized castle.

♪ Nevertheless, the mystery surrounding the death of the King of Bavaria lives on -more than a century later.

-That mystery will always remain and perhaps that's what Ludwig II wouldn't wanted for himself.

One of the sayings attributed to him was that he wanted to be the greeted enigma for himself and to others and that's how he has ended his life and remains today.

A great enigma to us all.

(narrator) Authorization had never been given to exhume the body to find out the real cause of this death.

♪ Mysteries surrounding magic footprints.

Legends of witches.

Secrets concealed in giant barrels.

♪ Everything, absolutely everything comes together in Heidelberg.

One of the most venerated castles by the German people.

♪ Whether because of its unusual red color or because it is a fine example of romantic architecture Heidelberg is a monumental palace that maintains its elegance despite a large part of it being in ruins.

♪ It was built in 1214 and grew in size for 300 years.

Until a bolt of lightening destroyed the upper part of the building for the first time.

♪ Two centuries later, another bolt of lightening caused another fire, leaving the palace practically burned to the ground.

Bad luck?

Dark forces?

Spirits?

(dramatic music) (Mike) The name of the city Heidelberg there is a reference to the mountain behind the modern city, the Heidelberg.

Which was a sacred site to the Celts and people who lived in the area in the centuries before the birth of Christ.

There have been many archeological discoveries made on that hill, it was a place of great power to them.

In fact, later on the hills around Heidelberg in the time of the Nazis were used as so-called sacred sites for their big rallies that they were going to have.

There's a placed called Thingstätten nearby which was a Nazi parade ground/ sacred site.

♪ (narrator) Its stones harbor 700 years of stories and legends.

Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinus.

A bustling city.

Farmers, merchants, knights.

The castle was a meeting point for everyone.

♪ The entrance to the palace has a small door which opens up an unanswered mystery.

What is this tiny door for?

Or who is it for?

The entrance has an iron door knocker.

A ring typical of the period but it has something strange.

An unusual cleft.

Legend has it that if anyone managed to bite through the metal knocker Heidelberg Palace would become their property.

Hundreds of powerful men tried it.

Breaking their teeth in the attempt.

(Jonas) But then a little old lady turned up and she said, "Oh, I would like to have a go at that because I would really like to have the castle."

And they thought, "Well, how could she destroy this metal ring with just her pure strength."

So they said "Yeah, go ahead try it."

And then she didn't try to tear it apart.

She bit into the metal and her teeth sank through the iron as if it was butter.

Because that was not an ordinary little old lady, it was a witch.

(narrator) Apparently, she tried it with all her supernatural strength but only managed to make a cleft.

A visible mark in the cast iron which has remained intact until today.

The story goes that her failed attempt so annoyed the sorceress that she laid a curse on it as she left.

♪ In the ensuing centuries three fires and a war left Heidelberg a castle in ruins.

♪ On the castle's great terrace a deep footprint on the floor is the source of another mystery.

(eerie music) Who's footprint is this?

♪ It is said that a handsome knight was trying to seduce a married lady when they were caught in flagrante in a room whose balcony overlooked this terrace.

♪ The legend has it that the knight leapt from a height of several meters.

♪ And left this deep impression.

Not only on the lady but also in the sandstone floor.

♪ (Jonas) There's a legend that any man whose foot fits into that footprint is just as great a lover as he was.

♪ (narrator) Another Heidelberg legend relates to this barrel of wine.

Which has a capacity of 220,000 liters.

♪ It is the world's largest barrel.

It was built to restore interest in the city which had lost its status as capital shortly before.

♪ It is seven meters high, three meters wide and eight and a half meters deep.

A stage was even built on top so that an orchestra could play there.

♪ And this is Perkeo, the court jester and a dwarf.

Legend has it that he was capable of drinking the whole barrel in a single gulp.

♪ In fact, he only drank eight liters a day which gave him particular motivation to entertain in the court.

♪ It is said that Perkeo only even drunk wine.

♪ And at the age of 80, he tried water for the first time.

He died the very next day.

♪ A death.

A mysterious footprint.

A curse.

Heidelberg is a cultural icon with thousands of university students roaming its streets but no one has ever been able to explain 700 years of mysteries and legends.

♪ We arrive at one of Germany's most emblematic castles.

Lichtenstein Castle.

♪ It's imposing tower standing on a rocky escarpment makes this castle quite a symbol.

Defying the abyss overlooking the city of Honau.

♪ The rock on which it stands forms part of its history and of a little known legend about the disappearance of three young people.

(dramatic music) ♪ Lichtenstein was built in just two years at the end of the 1800s.

It was constructed on an old walled fortress.

Using the light colored stone that makes it a singular castle.

One of Germany's most visited.

♪ The architect of this spectacular work was Duke Wilhelm von Urach.

The nephew of the king and quite a character.

(Jonas) And he was a real military expert.

He has ascended to the rank of general even and he was especially well versed in coordinating and fighting with artillery.

Which was really seeing a lot of developments in that time of the 19th century.

He, himself developed some new methods for how to construction canons so that they wouldn't be as volatile when you fired them that it wouldn't be as dangerous to work with them, that you could be more precise and more effective with them.

(narrator) He made a number of contributions.

Such as reducing recoil in canons.

As well as researching improvements in munition.

♪ His passion for arms took the form of an extensive collection that can be visited on the first floor of the castle.

♪ Together with a large collection of paintings.

♪ The knight's hall is practically an art gallery.

Hanging on one of its walls is the famous painting of the Archer of Lichtenstein.

(lively music) Everything seems to be in order but when we look closely, something catches our eye.

Why is there a bullet hole in a large mirror?

Who was that bullet intended for?

(Mike) In 1945 when the French came through this area they took the nearby town of Reutlingen.

Nobody can say for sure how it happened but knowing that there was quite a lot of fighting in this area, it's not surprising that, you know, bullets might go flying and hitting mirrors within the castle.

(dramatic music) (narrator) The allied soldiers discovered a number of passageways that could be used for escape in case of emergency or siege.

♪ Two of them end a few meters beneath the gallery which gives access to the main door.

♪ But there is a third gallery which emerges in a rocky area beneath the empty bridge.

An opening in the rock, partly concealed by the scrub.

(Mike) During the Middle Ages it was very important to have an escape route if your castle was under siege or you were about to be taken by enemy forces, having a tunnel where you could send everybody out was a really good investment.

These tunnels could also be used as stores for food and supplies.

♪ (narrator) Lichtenstein most secret legend, one that is little known, has it that three young people disappeared through one of these passageways after being discovered stealing precious objects.

♪ Some even say that the stolen booty was the royal crown.

According to the legend, the young people never reappeared in the town.

♪ And was swallowed up by the Lichtenstein rock.

♪ Discovering whether this is a legend or an unanswered secret continue to be a mystery locked in the Lichtenstein tower one hundred years later.

♪ (eerie music) (muffled recording) Help, help, please help.

Please, can you hear me?

Can you hear me out there?

(narrator) This is a recording from 1952 from the Armed Forces Network radio station for American soldiers in Germany.

(muffled recording) We've knocked over something here that...

Excuse me just one second.

(narrator) It was the night of Halloween.

Broadcasting live from the castle in Mühltal.

Or to give it its other name, the authentic and terrifying Castle of Frankenstein.

(muffled recording) Some type of a machine.

(thundering) (indistinct recording) Somebody help, help, please help.

(narrator) What started off as a macabre joke ended up in panic.

The same panic that comes from knowing how the legend of Frankenstein came about.

♪ In 1818, the writer Mary Shelley published Frankenstein The Modern Prometheus.

♪ The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his creature is considered the first science fiction horror novel.

♪ Where did Shelley get her ideas from to writer such a story?

(Jonas) She traveled Europe, she famously spend a summer at Lake Geneva where the weather was horrible.

So they sat around telling ghost stories where she had the idea for her great novel, Frankenstein.

♪ (narrator) As a 17 year old, Mary Shelley appears to have visited this castle.

Discovering the sinister work of a shady character.

Called Konrad Dippel.

(Leo) Now he had the reputation as an alchemist but he was almost something of a wild intellect in his day.

Arguing on the religious controversies of the period.

Even changing sides in the debates and was in prison for heresy for a period of seven years.

He was also accused, for example, of killing a man in a dual.

Others said that he robbed graves, experiments on corpse and had even made a pact with the Devil.

♪ (narrator) Dippel returned to the castle as an expert alchemist.

He had created the color known as prussian blue.

Which brought him considerable income at the time.

This allowed him to return to devote himself obsessively to experimenting with corpses.

♪ His obsession, bringing the dead back to life.

(Leo) What Dippel had in fact discovered which was known as Dippel's Oil was a tarry, smelly substance formed from the destructive distillation of bones and animal skins.

Its only real value is as an animal and insect repellent.

(Jonas) He said that he had created an elixir of life which could reanimate dead bodies.

♪ (narrator) It was said that Dippel had made a pact with the Devil.

Fear began to take hold of the local inhabitants until they discovered him dead in the basement of the castle.

Surrounded by fragments of mutilated bodies and with signs of having poisoned himself with one of his potions.

♪ (Leo) So Dippel was believed to have died during experiments in his laboratory and his body was found, foam at his mouth and in a terrible contorted state.

Perhaps he had tried his own oil and in an attempt to live longer.

(narrator) Several days later, his laboratory went up in flames.

(thundering) (eerie music) ♪ Castle Frankenstein was already known through other legends arising from the dark forest in which it nestles.

♪ Ghosts of love-struck maidens.

Dragons and alike.

But nothing comparable to visiting the castle at Christmas.

It is said that Dippel's ghost appears sitting on the chapel roof uttering heart rendering cries to the monster.

(wolf howling) ♪ This tough, sturdy castle is the longest in the world.

It is more than a kilometer long.

Hence its appearance in the Guinness Book of Records.

It also has 1,000 years of history.

A treasure and a wealth of military secrets that we're going to discover.

♪ It stands on the boarder with Austria and was built to withstand the ferocious attacks of the Turkish and Swedish armies.

As its fame as an impregnable fortress grew so its defenses continued to increase.

(Leo) The way the castle developed was the oldest part was ion the furthest end of this rocky spar and over the centuries they built it further and further out until there were in total six distinctive parts.

Each with its own courtyard, each with its own gate.

So this made it a very strong position to defend.

(narrator) But without doubt, its best kept secrets from its enemies was something called zwinger.

What was that zwinger?

(Jonas) So the idea of zwinger is to control where your enemy can go when they attack the castle.

Zwinger comes from the German word zwinging, to force.

So you're trying to force the enemy into a small, confined space that you control and then there, it is a lot easier for you to fight them, especially if you have the high ground.

You can throw things at them or you can shoot them or your defenders can easily ward them off and kill them when they are confined in this small space.

(narrator) The defenders of the castle waited for that zwinger to fill with enemies and then bombarded them.

♪ All those unaware of Burghausen's secret would die like flies in the fortresses intricate labyrinth.

♪ And what about the tower in the west?

On the other side of the river.

What is its secret?

Its name Powder Tower leaves no doubt about this.

This is where the arms and the gun powder were stored.

To ensure the supply of munitions was not threatened during attacks a fortified walkway was built across the river to the castle.

There was also a secret passage hidden from the enemies sight.

(dramatic music) ♪ What was Burghausen guarding so jealously in its interior that it needed such a system of defense?

♪ An absolute treasure of gold and silver coins.

♪ Which the Duke of Bavaria, know as Georg The Rich kept within its walls.

♪ (Jonas) He had lots of very expensive fabrics.

Lots of expensive items made of precious metals like silver goblets, gold plates.

♪ (narrator) His wedding with Hedwig, heir to the thrown of Poland was so spectacular that it is still celebrated in the city today.

♪ A lot of these things had been acquired in the context of his wedding.

Which was one of the biggest celebrations of the time.

People came from all over Germany to attend the tournaments there.

(orchestral music) ♪ (narrator) Burghausen continued to expand until it became the longest castle in the world.

Just over a kilometer of fortifications that still send shivers down the spine today.

♪ (dramatic music) This medieval tower standing on a small island in the Rhine conceals one of the most macabre stories in the area.

♪ A legend that still strikes fear into the hearts of those who hear it.

♪ The Mouse Tower is an example of tragedy and blood.

Based in the reality of a dark and almost inhuman period of history.

♪ The tale has been told since the 10th century and has as its protagonist Archbishop Hatto II.

♪ A cruel and tyrannical ruler.

He oppressed the local peasants and demanded tributes from ships sailing down the river.

Threatening them with arches and crossbow men from the top of the tower.

(suspenseful music) But the Archbishop's wickedness, it is said, could be diabolical.

♪ The year is 974.

The inhabitants of the surrounding villages were dying of famine.

The most desperate resorted to eating cats and dogs.

♪ Meanwhile, Hatto's grain store was full.

(Mike) In the 10th century, to be precise, Bishops wielded an incredible amount of power.

They were basically feudal lords.

Hatto had a reputation for being incredibly cruel, nasty and greedy to his peasants.

(narrator) The peasants attempted a rebellion to gain access to the food.

But Hatto devised a cruel and macabre plan.

♪ He told them to go to an empty barn under the pretext of distributing cereals to all the families.

Once the barn was full the Archbishop ordered the doors to be locked and set fire to it.

♪ The screams were heart-rending.

♪ In a corn stall and had it set on fire.

As they were screaming as they were running to death he allegedly said to one of this entourage, "Look how the mice are shrieking."

♪ (narrator) After the massacre he returned to his castle but he was besieged by an army.

And not just any army.

These were mice.

Thousands of mice.

(mice squeaking) ♪ The legend has it that the souls of the murdered peasants turned into rodents in search of revenge.

♪ The incredulous criminal took refuge in the tower.

♪ He thought the rodents would not be able to follow him across the river.

♪ (Jonas) Then at night, they came out of the woodwork again and he heard their little feet taping and he felt the little teeth nipping at him.

He couldn't run anymore.

He was trapped in the tower and there, the mice ate him while he was still alive.

♪ (orchestral music) (narrator) Documentary sources confirmed the existence of the Archbishop of Mainz, a man named Hatto.

It is said that his cruelty was remembered for decades in Saxony.

Did he really die devoured by the rodents?

Were they the souls of the murdered peasants?

♪ Only this pretty little tower still standing in the middle of the river knows the truth.

♪ (dramatic music) ♪ Reichenstein Castle on the banks of the Rhine.

♪ A terrible legend is concealed behind these dark stone walls.

♪ Built in the 11th century, Reichenstein was inhabited by a family line of knights.

Apparently not the most honorable.

Who devoted their time to robbing the possessions of passing travelers and imposing the payment of tributes.

The head of the last family generation was Dietrich von Hohenfels.

(Jonas) They were what in German we call [speaking German], marauding knights, people who had certain rights and privileges but who abused them.

(Mike) These guys had castles on the river.

What they would do is they would have something, a chain across the river or they'd have a tower on the river or they'd have something that meant that boats going down the river had to stop.

Had to basically pull over and pay a fee.

Whether that be money or part of its cargo.

Before they were allowed to go on.

♪ (narrator) Tired of the pillaging, King Rudolf I of Habsburg besieged Reichenstein for four long years.

After various unsuccessful attacks.

♪ According to the legend, Dietrich decided to surrender in the knowledge that they would cut off his head.

♪ But he imposed a prior condition.

That his nine sons be pardoned.

And thus begins the most known and most bloody legend of the Headless Ghost of Reichenstein.

♪ The King agreed to his request but imposed an impossible condition.

He would only show mercy if once decapitated Dietrich was able to move his nine sons from one point to another.

Crossing a line traced on the ground.

♪ The executioners axe came down on the robber's neck.

♪ And then, Dietrich's decapitated body stood up.

♪ And taking his nine sons one by one, managed to move them to the other side of the line.

♪ The legend then has it that Rudolf was furious and ordered that Dietrich's nine sons be hanged near Saint Clements Chapel where their souls lie at rest.

♪ Dietrich von Hohenfels, the robber knight, found no peace and remains a tortured soul.

(intense music) Eight centuries later, a museum and a hotel now stand within the walls of Reichenstein.

♪ But the headless ghost of the robber knight who tried to save his sons can still apparently be seen wandering the battlements staring at the chapel.

(dramatic music) ♪ Imposing.

♪ Spectacular.

♪ And shrouded in the most epic legend from Germanic mythology.

♪ We're in Drachenburg Castle.

♪ Whose stones are steeped in the story of Siegfried, the great Nordic hero.

A legend bathed in blood and death.

♪ What are the secrets concealed in this marvel of architecture?

♪ The mountain is called Drachenfels which means "Dragon's Rock."

♪ This is the starting point for the story of Siegfried.

The legendry hero who managed to slay the dragon and bathe in its blood.

♪ The well-known legend has it that this blood made Siegfried invincible.

But was this really the case?

(Jonas) What he does not realize though is a leaf from a linden tree falls right between his soldiers.

So there's one spot that the dragon's blood does not touch.

So there's one spot on his body that is vulnerable.

(narrator) And that weakness lead to his death when he was run through with lance just at that point.

♪ At the foot of the mountain, the Nibelungenhalle, pays homage to this legend which inspired Wagner's great musical work The Ring of the Nibelungen.

(The Ring of the Nibelungen) ♪ It is said that it was here in this exact spot where the dragon died where everything happened.

Drachenfels.

Can a medieval story impregnate the walls of a 19th century castle?

♪ (piano music) Many centuries after Siegfried and the dragon someone decided to lay the castle's first stones.

It was in 1882 and it was given the name of Drachenburg The Dragon's Castle, to keep the legend alive and well.

(dramatic music) ♪ (Mike) Drachenburg is one of these castles that was built in the 19th century.

It's not a medieval construction but it's built to sort of reflect a German history that really didn't exist.

It's kind of a very, very colorful, very stylized, very chivalrous view of the past.

♪ (narrator) This imposing construction was built in just two years.

Who would want to build a monument like this?

Heavily influenced by the legend.

That man was Stephan von Sarter.

A baron, banker and millionaire.

Son of an innkeeper, he made his fortune exchanging and lending money but primarily by financing the Suez Canal.

(Leo) But that wasn't enough for him.

He also wanted to establish his own castle like any true knight so he devised a plan to build Drachenburg.

♪ (narrator) Von Sarter never lived there.

He devoted time and money to it but he only used it to receive visits.

What made him take this decision?

♪ (Leo) Von Sarter appeared to be a great success.

He had been made a baron.

He had built his own castle but then tragedy struck.

He'd intended to move into his castle with his childhood sweetheart but during the building process she had died.

And the brokenhearted baron did not move into the castle.

♪ (narrator) Von Sarter was buried near the castle but he is not alone.

Next to him is another grave baring the name of Paul Spinat.

Is Spinat connected somehow with the secret hidden by the imposing organ that presides over the music room?

♪ Spinat was an eccentric millionaire.

He had bought the castle and turned it into a supposedly cultural center.

There were exhibitions by artists like Dali and Chagall.

And visits from the likes of Andy Warhol.

Whom he would receive dressed in military uniforms and braid.

♪ He was an eccentric character capable of filling the halls and gardens with mysteries and surprises.

Otherwise, why is there a golden Rolls Royce in the palace gardens?

And what is the secret of the organ?

♪ It is a very curious secret.

The organ is fake.

♪ The concerts that Spinat held were a farce.

(Leo) Now Spinat unfortunately, could not play the organ.

The organ itself was dummy.

Instead, he was playing recorded music.

But he so successfully fooled people that even his own wife believed that he was a great organist.

Even up until his death.

♪ (narrator) He lived in Drachenburg Castle until his death in 1989.

♪ Three deaths.

♪ A legend.

♪ And a number of curious secrets enclosed within the walls of Drachenburg.

One of the most beautiful constructions of this type we can find.

A peculiar castle without a doubt.

♪ The State of Saxony is home to the imposing Kriebstein Castle.

♪ Its craggy outline overlooking the river and its strong walls conceal stories of war and interminable sieges.

♪ Kriebstein projects a powerful image that clashes with the female protagonist of its main legend.

A legend that relates how a woman's intelligence defeated a powerful army and made its king a laughing stock.

♪ Kriebstein Castle was built before 1400.

Just a few years later, the knight Dietrich von Staupitz and his men conquered the castle.

♪ The surprise assault offended the sovereign price.

Frederick the Belligerent.

Several months of siege left the fortress' inhabitants without food.

♪ And some of them could resist no longer.

Kriebstein is a very strong castle but nobody could withstand a siege forever.

So the ladies of the castle pleaded with him to allow them to escape, carrying only their most precious possessions.

Frederick although belligerent was not entirely heartless.

So he allowed them to leave.

Expecting them to come out carrying boxes of jewelry and other such items.

♪ (narrator) What was the surprise awaiting Frederick?

(suspenseful music) ♪ He could not believe his eyes.

♪ The women were not carrying their jewels.

They were carrying on their backs what they considered to be their most precious belongings.

♪ None other than their husbands.

♪ (Leo) Imagine his surprise then when the ladies came out of the gate carrying their husbands on their backs.

(narrator) The prince was so impressed with the ladies deception that he spared von Staupitz's life.

♪ Kriebstein however, has revealed a much more recent secret.

1986 saw the discovery of a hidden chamber containing treasure.

♪ Various precious possessions hidden there by Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff.

A German army officer.

♪ In the closing years of World War II in 1944, Graf von Lehndorff, who had ownership of the castle moved a lot of his valuable objects.

We're talking paintings, statues, very, very valuable books that tell us a lot about the past and brought them to the castle.

(narrator) With the German army now in full retreat, von Lehndorff formed part of the group that made an unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life in July 1944.

He was arrested the following day and although he escaped twice, he was hanged six weeks later.

♪ Very few places has as many secrets as Colditz Castle in Saxony, very close to Leipzig.

(dramatic music) ♪ This medieval fortress dating from the 11th century has witnessed many moments of human desperation.

(screaming) Its enormous walls, some of them seven meters thick, stifled the cries of psychiatric patients for 100 years.

(screaming) And struck fear into anyone held prisoner in its cells.

♪ At that time, legends began to develop.

In this case, legends that were completely true.

(lively music) In the 19th century Colditz was an insane asylum for rich people and nobles.

In the 1930s, the Nazis used the castle, which had been converted into a prison in the first World War, to imprison communists, homosexuals and Jews.

(Jonas) People were basically imprisoned in asylums, as they were called, and Colditz is no exception.

It was a castle.

It was a fortified structure.

It was repurposed because it had thick walls, it had defenses, it was difficult to get in but it was also very easy to make it difficult to get out.

♪ (narrator) With that experience in mind in the second World War, Hitler's Command decided to send the most escape prone allied officers there.

From 1940 onwards, Polish, French, English and Dutch officers, most of whom have already made escape attempts began to arrive.

♪ It is said that to control so many potential escapees there were more German soldiers than prisoners.

♪ What they didn't take into account was that these men were determined to fight with their finest weapon, their intelligence.

It really was where you sent the worst, of the worst of the worst of POWs.

The prisoners of war who just couldn't sit still.

Who really couldn't bear to be anywhere.

Didn't matter whether you threatened them with executing them if they escaped.

Didn't matter if, you know, what kind of reprisal they promised.

They were those who were desperate to try to escape.

♪ (narrator) The first man to escape from Colditz was the British officer Peter Allen.

(eerie music) He hid in a mattress that the Germans were taking out -to be replaced.

-Obviously if you've got a castle that's made out of stone it's a lot harder to tunnel out of the castle then it is out of an old prisoner of war camp.

So people had to come up with other ideas as to how to escape.

♪ (narrator) The first successful escape was perpetrated by the French lieutenant Alain Le Ray.

Who hid in a garden shed.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Germans were distracted by a football match.

He managed to reach Switzerland.

(piano music) ♪ However, the most impressive feat without doubt was the work of engineering performed by the prisoners who dug several tunnels underneath Colditz.

The most extraordinary of them was the one dug by French officers over a period of months.

The tunnel was 44 meters long and eight meters deep.

♪ Passing underneath several rooms in the castle.

♪ It had electric light which was also used for sending signals if any Nazi officer approached.

(suspenseful music) ♪ The Germans discovered it when it was just nine meters short of freedom.

♪ Although ingenious, this was not the most spectacular escape attempt.

Jack Best and Bill Goldfinch, REF pilots managed to build a glider.

(Mike) Overtime, they were able to put together a glider that would be able to fit I think two or three men.

But the plan was that they were going to use it during an air raid and they were going to basically run off the top of one of the roofs and glide across the valley.

(narrator) However, the war ended before they had a chance to try it out.

(uplifting music) ♪ In five years, the prisoners had managed 30 successful escapes.

♪ Many years after the end of the war, hidden galleries and secret compartments are still appearing from this time in Colditz.

A castle come prison which was defeated from inside by the yearning for freedom.

♪