(dramatic 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.

♪ We are looking at the best preserved Romanesque castle in Europe.

♪ From the 11th century until the present Loarre has remained one of the most spectacular fortresses we can still see today.

Both because of its location, overlooking the Huesca Valley in Northeastern Spain and because of its robust construction.

Sitting on top of a rocky limestone outcrop that prevented attacks from underground.

♪ It was a defensive bastion used by King Sancho III, The Great to halt the advance of Islam.

Dating from that time is the central core of the military complex.

Which was later extended to even include a church.

Which was difficult and complicated to locate, Saint Peter of Loarre.

♪ Loarre was constructed using the rocky formations.

Turning any extension work into a challenge.

♪ The church is on two floors and is accessed via a steep staircase.

And its interior contains some very audacious elements.

Considering that it was built a thousand years ago.

♪ The whole of the complex is a succession of twists and turns on different levels.

Intelligent solutions to overcome the problem of height.

(translator #1) The strategic importance of Loarre lies in its location as gateway or key to the central Pyrenees in Aragon.

Because to the north are the mountain barriers that are difficult to cross and to the south, we descend to the Ebro Valley in the direction of Zaragoza.

This means it is very close to Jaca which is the capital of the kingdom of Aragon and has an extraordinary importance.

♪ (narrator) Loarre had both a military and religious purpose.

It was not a castle designed for luxury.

For years, it was home to a community of Augustine monks.

Whose rules and behavior also initially followed the Order of the Templars.

(translator #2) It's on that link between the religious and the military will have enormous importance for the future of the history of the Iberian peninsula.

Because they will be the starting point for the creation of religious and military orders that will have great importance in the reconquest.

♪ (narrator) One of Loarre's oldest legends stems from that military and religious character associated with Christianity and the Holy War.

The legend of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki.

(translator #2) Saint Demetrius was a military saint.

A byzantine saint, a former legionnaire in the Roman legions who left the army, abandoned the army, -and converted to Christianity.

-He was a high ranking solider in the Roman Empire whose position led to him being executed by his guards who ran him through with their lances.

(dramatic music) It is said that hundreds of years later, he remains performed miracles and so the Christian community decided to move them.

♪ (translator #3) When the remains come to Spain they put them on the back of a mule which starts to walk.

The people who bring them start to look for somewhere to bury them and someone says, "Let's wait until the mule stops."

And the mule just carried on walking and walking.

(piano music) And finally stopped in Loarre.

♪ (narrator) The legend goes that the clerics following the mule upon witnessing this sign decided to deposit the remains in the castle.

leading to the construction of the church of Saint Peter.

♪ But Loarre also has its mysterious and ghostly aspects.

One of the legends has it that on the night of Saint John in June, the figure of a woman appears looking out from the balcony known as the queen's balcony.

She is waiting for her love, her own cousin, to return from France where he has gone to recruit troops.

She is Doña Violante, niece of the Pope Luna Benedict XIII.

♪ (translator #2) Doña Violante defended Loarre Castle for several months and defended it against the Royal Army.

So her role must've been spectacular to say the least and she was the military leader in a world that was practically a man's world.

♪ (narrator) This happened in 1413 and Loarre, which had held out against the army, had to surrender to the King Ferdinand.

Doña Violante was imprisoned in the castle dungeons and nothing more was heard of her.

♪ This is Spain's most visited castle and without doubt, the most familiar in the world.

The Alcazar or Fortress of Segovia.

100 kilometers from Madrid.

♪ But hardly anyone knows that this marvel of architecture owes part of its appearance to a bolt of lightening.

♪ The term Alcazar which comes from Arabic means "fortified royal residence."

(translator #1) Segovia in Roman times almost certainly had a castilo, an important defensive structure in the area where the Alcázar stands, the Alcázar in Segovia is the fruit of the passing centuries fires and destructions and has proved to be an example because it has escaped ruin because it has always belonged to the kings of Castile.

(narrator) But there can be no doubt that the king who left an indelible mark on the Alcázar was Alfonzo X, The Wise.

So named because of his love of culture, knowledge of the sciences, astronomy and writing.

He was an innovator who laid the foundation stones for democratization of the crown and who saw Segovia as an important venue to carry out his modernization plans.

(translator #2) At that time the king's did not have a fixed physical capital.

The court was itinerant, changing from town to town.

And in each of the towns in Castile and León they needed a palace.

Something which was defensively powerful but with all the comforts of a palace.

♪ (narrator) The reign of Alfonso X saw the beginnings of the majestic castle we can admire today.

♪ For this reason, he began the construction of the keep.

♪ The legend of the Alcázar, however, tells that the renovations had a divine beginning.

(translator #3) At some point, Alfonso X, The Wise said that if he had created the world he would've done it much better than God.

The church considered this to be blasphemy and sent a Franciscan monk to force Alfonso X to retract but he refused.

(translator #2) According to the legend, the King's refusal invoked the wrath of God who sent a bolt of lightening that struck the Alcázar at the moment it was occupied by the court.

There were a number of prelates, noblemen and the king himself present -and the Alcázar caught fire.

-There was thunder, lightening and rain.

And the canopy of the bed, where the king was sleeping with his wife, fell on top of him.

♪ (narrator) Alfonso X apologized to the clergy but took advantage of the fire to renovate the palace to his liking.

The castle has a number of rooms intended for royal audiences and celebrations.

The work of successive monarchs.

♪ One of them experienced a tragic event that became a historical legend.

(eerie music) The youngest son of Henry II, King of Castile, fell to his death from a window in the palace.

(translator #2) The King and Queen lived there with their children running around the corridors and misfortune befell them at some point.

What the chronicles tell us and what the legend has enhanced is that when the governess who was looking after the young prince witnessed the tragedy she threw herself out of the window to her death.

Fearing the wrath of her master, the king.

(narrator) The child's grave is in Segovia Cathedral very close to the castle.

It was always said that he was around 12 years old.

But recent investigations into the contents of the tomb place his age at just under a year old.

What really happened?

Perhaps the legend is a true reflection of the reality.

♪ As the centuries went by the Alcázar changed from being a royal residence to a prison for noblemen and in the 20th century, it was converted into a military artillery academy but it continues to delight anyone who comes to see it or who admires its outline from far away.

(dramatic music) ♪ There was a time when the symbol on this flag struck fear into the hearts of the Muslim's occupying Spanish territory.

The symbol belongs to the Order of Calatrava, practically unknown but who were the most valiant, battled hardened soldier monks to fight in the times of reconquest of Spain.

This is their castle.

The new Calatrava.

♪ (translator #1) The Order of Calatrava is an Order of Knights.

An order of soldier monks who followed the tradition of the Templars, the knights of the hospital of Jerusalem.

(translator #2) The order of Calatrava is the first purely Spanish military order founded in the Iberian peninsula.

(intense music) ♪ (narrator) In this enormous castle which occupies more than 46,000 square meters, the Calatravas, as the monks of the order were known, were the advanced party for the Hispanic monarchs in their fight against the Muslims.

(translator #1) The kings of Western Europe wanted their own orders because they were crusaders, solider monks, religious devotees, their aim was to expel their Muslim enemies.

(narrator) This area, in the province of (speaking foreign language), was considered strategic.

First, the knights Templar defended it.

When they heard of plans for a great Muslim offensive they announced their withdrawal to King Sancho.

The King offered the castle to anyone who could defend it and to his surprise, two Cistercian monks answered the call.

Saint Raymond of Fitero and monk Diego Velásquez.

The Order of Calatrava was born.

(dramatic music) ♪ (translator #3) Some 200 or 500 knights road out to fight thousands of advancing Almohads.

Later on, their number increased and the fortress accumulated a troop of 2,000 soldiers under the orders of the Knights of Calatrava.

(narrator) Some records even talk of religious army of 20,000 Calatravas.

Some of whom were lay knights.

Other were monks whose calling was the exercise the faith and keep up their soldier's spirits.

(translator #2) They were phonetical fighters, highly specialized and with considerable military skill.

They became the elite troops of the armies of the Iberian peninsula and of the Middle Ages.

(eerie music) ♪ (narrator) The castle became their citadel.

It was built in 1213.

Taking advantage of a quartz rock outcrop from which it was easy to extract the rock needed to build the fortress.

It is said that it only took four years because they used the Muslim prisoners as labor.

Perhaps this is why many of the walls seem to have an anarchic arrangement of stones.

♪ But if one thing stands out in particular, it is the entrance to the church with its enormous rose window.

The design of which is based on the symbol of the Order.

The light that bathes the interior through the rose window takes us back in time to the period when the knights were soldiers of the Order in the service of God.

♪ However, one curious feature stands out.

If we look at the rose window head on we can see that it is not centered.

One of the buttresses is superimposed on one side.

♪ A legend has it that this may have been an intentional error committed by those Muslims involved in the construction in an act of revenge.

Some however, say that it was an oversight, resulting from the hasty construction.

♪ The castle has a broad expanse of land that was also used as a cemetery for the knights who died in combat, close to what was previously a small chapel.

The brave knights were buried with earth brought expressly from Jerusalem.

The holy land of the crusades.

(translator #2) Being buried under earth from Jerusalem was the highest honor that anyone could aspire to in those times.

♪ (narrator) This was an honor reserved exclusively for the Order's Knights who had taken vows of silence, obedience and Chasity.

Although a few years ago, the remains of a woman and a child were found buried there.

A mystery that has never been clarified.

♪ The castle's chapter house was something akin to the citadel's parliament.

On the ground, now visible, a number of gravestones covered the bodies of grand masters of the order and some high ranking knights.

♪ The walls were decorated with frescos.

Some of which can still be seen.

In which a Moore pierces the neck of a Christian knight with his lance.

♪ (music intensifies) The Muslims never won back these lands.

The Calatravas continued with their fight for almost three centuries but the end of the reconquest the struggles for power and many abuses of authority led the catholic monarchs to issue a decree that the order be passed to the control of the Spanish Crown forever.

♪ (lively music) ♪ The history of Peniscola Castle is inevitably linked with the Order of the Templars and a mythical figure, Pope Benedict XIII.

The so-called Pope Luna.

The man at the center of the Catholic churches most turbulent episode of the Middle Ages.

♪ Peniscola Castle is on the Mediterranean Coast of the province of Castellón de la Plana in Eastern Spain.

♪ It was a small Islamic fortification which was reconquered by the Christians at the end of the 13th century.

(translator #2) In 1294 it was handed over to the Templars who built an even more impregnable fortress.

A truly powerful castle and in a very short time, by around 1304, this construction was completed.

(narrator) The castle became an imposing bastion on the Mediterranean Coast.

Considered a key location in the crusades.

(translator #2) The Order of the Temple was an international order.

They had possessions all over Europe and all these possessions, fundamentally European, in Catalonia, Aragon and Castile would send responses or medieval levees to the Holy Land.

In other words, money, horses, arms and men sent to the Holy Land to support the war against the Muslims because this was the last frontier of Christianity.

Peniscola was used as a bridgehead.

A port from where many of these resources were embarked to support the wars against the Muslims in the crusades.

♪ (narrator) A few years after construction of the castle was completed the knights Templar were forced to hand over Peniscola to the King of Aragon.

(translator #3) The Templar Knights disappear from the map.

They are forced to flee.

Some of them, theoretically have ships in France and flee to America while others who are pursued across the peninsula flee through the land of Castile into Extremadura and Portugal.

(narrator) Peniscola remained in the hands of Crown of Aragon.

But soon afterwards, it took on huge importance again.

When it became the headquarters of the Pope Luna, Benedict XIII, who was forced to flee from France because of the so-called Western Schism.

(translator #2) The Western Schism was a split in the catholic church between two claims to the papacy.

Rome and Avignon.

The Pope Luna, Benedict XIII, the Pope in Avignon, was forced to flee from Avignon and took refuge in Peniscola Castle where he was given permanent protection by the Kings of Aragon.

(opera music) ♪ He was of course, an ambitious and intelligent man.

Nobody gets to become the pope if they're not ambitious and intelligent with the ability to drum up great support around his person and it goes without saying, exercise great manipulation.

♪ (narrator) Who was the Pope Luna?

♪ His name was Pedro Luna.

He was elected Pope in France on the death of Clement VII when Urban IV also occupied the position of Pope in Rome.

The Christian faith now had two popes at the same time and a problem.

(intense music) ♪ With the French option defeated Pope Luna took refuge in Peniscola.

(translator #3) He took refuge there saying he'd remain pope forever until he died.

♪ (narrator) The legends about the Pope Luna draw their inspirations from his fierce character.

It is said that he had supernatural powers.

Perhaps based on the level of his knowledge in many fields.

(translator #3) The Pope Luna was an alchemist, a magician and accused of being a sorcerer.

Because it was said that he built a staircase in just one night so that he could go out to sea.

It was also said that those stairs had a magic ship that he could use to fly to Rome.

♪ (narrator) There were stories of how he was very familiar with the properties of numerous herbs.

leading to him being considered an esoteric man.

(translator #3) The Pope Luna was an alchemist, said to make special potions that could bring everything around him under his influence.

(narrator) The Pope Luna died at the age of 94 and despite being declared the antipope and a heretic, it is said that he continued to be Pope until the end of his days.

♪ Welcome to Coca Castle.

In Segovia, Central Spain.

An infusion of war-like and technologic imagination constructed by a master architect of Muslim origin called Ali Caro.

(piano music) ♪ (translator #1) Coca is one of the most spectacular, if not, the most spectacular Spanish castle from the Middle Ages.

(narrator) Commissioning Ali Caro to build the castle had another objective, to save costs.

Given that the (indistinct), master architects were experts in the use of materials.

Such as bricks and mortar.

Eliminating the use of stone.

(intense music) Coca is a sunken castle.

It wasn't built on a hill but rather rose up from below the surface of the land.

The idea was to make it less vulnerable to artillery which at that time was beginning to wreak havoc in sieges.

♪ Brick was also better at absorbing impacts.

(translator #2) At the end of the Middle Ages artillery was the great military revolution of the time.

It was a very expensive technological element.

Very difficult to obtain.

Only kings could afford to have large stocks of artillery, a lot of pieces in their fortresses and artillery also meant a change in the way castles were built.

♪ (narrator) The huge moat never contained water.

The idea was to keep the enemy at a distance and force it to descend to that height if it wanted to attack the castle.

What's more, the walls were faceted for two reasons.

To cause artillery projectiles to bounce off them and at the same time, prevent the enemy from climbing -the walls using ladders.

-They built gun ports to house the artillery pieces and corridors connecting all those gun ports to serve the canons and ventilate them.

Because obviously, those canons produce gases that had to be expelled and that also led to changes in the form of the fortifications.

(narrator) Coca had numerous technical details that continue to provoke admiration because of the intelligence of the person who designed it or because of his malicious way of thinking.

♪ This is not a normal vault.

This was the dungeon.

There was no other opening into the room.

Prisoners were thrown down through the hole in the top.

The fall from six meters usually broke a number of bones.

But they received no attention.

♪ One part of the circular wall was made of brick with the mortar sloping downwards to prevent any attempt to climb up.

Quite a useless endeavor.

In a place like this, with no points of spatial reference, prisoners went out of their minds.

They were taken out after four months completely mad.

(intense music) ♪ The castle has an underground tank for water emerging from a spring.

The entrance to which is at the base of this battlement.

♪ It is said that to test whether the water was permanently drinkable they kept a single fresh water fish in the tank.

If it died the water could be poisoned and they only kept one fish there to prevent it reproducing.

♪ A most curious system to warn of poisoning.

♪ The water galleries were also used to detect possible incursions through the tunnels.

As the water could transmit the vibrations of the excavations.

♪ (translator #3) As time passed, the castle became a place for courtesans.

People went to see troubadours, to have parties and other types of events.

(translator #1) The nobles would boast about having the largest number of squires, knights and pages.

They dressed them all the same with the horses all saddled up as well.

In a kind of representation of elemental power.

(narrator) In those meetings, the historic legend of the love between Maria de Fonseca, the daughter of Antonia de Fonseca, captain of the catholic monarchs and the Marquis of Zenete was forged.

The captain, who had other plans for his daughter, rejected this relationship and married her to another.

The Marquis in a crazed attempt to rescue his loved one attacked the castle with his small army and was severely burnt by the boiling oil poured through the machicolations in the battlements.

♪ Maria was widowed soon afterwards.

When he heard the news, the Marquis of Zenete kidnapped Maria and married her a short time later.

(music intensifies) ♪ He was sent to prison for his pains by Queen Isabella and was released upon the sovereign's death.

♪ In a castle designed for war but which has no ghosts, specters and impossible legends this love story with a happy ending gives these magnificent towers and walls a human feel.

♪ A German traveler wrote in the 15th century, "No king has a more beautiful palace and castle with so many gilded rooms."

He was talking about this one, Olite Castle in Navarre, Northern Spain.

And on his travels around Europe he had seen nothing to compare with it.

The castle was built as an absolute expression of power and elegance.

Charles III, the monarch of the then Kingdom of Navarre, known as Charles the Noble, ordered the construction of a fortified residence that would be a symbol in response to the political ambitions of other Spanish -and European nobles.

-Olite Castle was built because Navarre wanted to be independent from the rest of the country.

So Navarre has a pact with France and it is the French who help Navarre to remain independent.

(piano music) (narrator) Olite is notable for its innovation and a certain extravagance.

This perception of luxury prompted Charles III to bring numerous exotic animals from different parts of the world.

(translator #2) We know there was a small zoo with animals brought from different parts of the world.

Which of course, turned the kings of Navarre into lovers of luxury who liked to show off that luxury and ostentation.

♪ (translator #3) We don't know exactly how many there were but we do know there were animals of all kinds.

Lions, zebras, parrots of different types.

(narrator) The royal cage was in this courtyard and covered with a net that prevented the birds from flying off.

You have the impression of still being able to hear the singing of some tropical birds here where the walls still have the holes that supported the bars on which they slept.

♪ It is said that there were also camels, ostriches and even a lion.

♪ The protagonist of one of the most curious legends.

(translator #3) Charles of Viana kept a lion as a pet.

A tamed lion called Mardoff that he used to walk around the castle.

It's said that the ghost of Charles of Viana walks around the castle with his lion.

And that the lion's roaring frightens people.

(narrator) It is said that the lion's roaring can sometimes be heard from the nearby hotel in the converted outside portion of the palace castle.

♪ The zoo was perhaps the most extravagant part of the palace.

It is said that it also had hanging gardens covering a large part of the facades which were the admiration of its visitors.

The secret to keeping the enormous tropical and climbing plants fresh was none other than an innovative irrigation system using lead pipes that circulated around the inside of the walls.

Quite extraordinary.

Also worthy of note is this oval shaped construction.

A huge refrigerator.

They would fill it with snow and use it both for preserving foods and for medicinal purposes.

To treat bruising or to reduce fever.

♪ But so much luxury and the pressure involved in maintaining it effected the king.

Who it is said went out of his mind and began hearing voices and laments.

It is claimed they can still be heard today.

(eerie music) ♪ A portrait of Charles III nearing the end of this life shows us a terrified man staring at what looks like a diabolical mask reflected in the painting.

♪ (translator #3) It's true that they say that Charles of Viana went mad and that it may have been that his madness transfigured his face and that's why he looks like that in the painting.

Let's say that the painting reflects the last stage of his madness.

♪ (narrator) In 1813, Olite was burnt down by the Spanish General Francisco Espouse to prevent it falling into the hands of Napoleon.

♪ It was rebuilt in 1937.

♪ But you can still hear whispers... laments and the roaring of a lion.

♪ One of Spain's most original castles is this one.

The castle palace of Belmonte.

In the Southwest of the province of Cuenca in Central Spain.

Despite being a genuine defensive fortification it was designed more as a palace for nobles.

During its almost eight centuries if history is has been a royal residence, a palace of retreat, a monastery.

(dramatic music) Its two major protagonist are two women with great personality.

Joanna la Beltraneja and the Empress Eugénie de Montijo.

♪ The history of Belmonte is closely associated with the tremendous confusion surrounding the succession to the Spanish thrown in the 15th century which finally ended up in the hands of the catholic monarchs.

(translator #2) Joanna la Beltraneja was the daughter of Henry IV who was called impotent because it seems he neglected his congeal duties.

In fact, his daughter Joanna appears actually to have been the daughter of a noblemen, Beltrán de la Cueva and hence her nickname la Beltraneja.

♪ (narrator) To cut a long story short, Joanna and her supporters became involved in a civil war supported by the King of Portugal.

Although never clearly defeated her army gradually withdrew in favor of her cousin, Isabella of Castile, the catholic queen.

On her withdrawal Joanna la Beltraneja was held in Belmonte Castle for a period of time.

It is not clear whether she remained in the castle as a guest or whether she was actually imprisoned.

♪ Joanna la Beltraneja fled from Belmonte.

It is not clear whether she did so with help or whether she had to use her own wits to escape.

(translator #2) The legend's based on the chronicles of the time tell us that Joanna disguised herself as a peasant woman and escaped by lowering herself from a window and fleeing to Portugal.

She lived out her days in Portugal.

Taking refuge in the court of her mother who was of Portuguese origin and lived the rest of her life as a nun in a Portuguese convent.

(piano music) ♪ (narrator) Back then, prisoners were subjected to cruel forms of torture.

At Belmonte there are records, as in other castles, of the use of Chinese water torture.

Which is sometimes erroneously confused with the male boot.

(translator #3) The prisoner was bound tightly to a column or a wall.

A container of water was placed above him with a hole in it so that a single drop of water fell on his head.

They would remove a section of hair so the skull was left bare.

The drop of water would fall constantly on his head, eating away at the skin and the tissue until it reached the bone.

The drop then gradually perforated the skull and reached the brain.

At which time, the prisoner would die.

Normally this torture technique would drive the prisoner mad before it actually killed him.

(intense music) ♪ (narrator) The decoration in the current Belmonte Castle is reminiscent of some French palaces.

This is because the person responsible for the restoration was none other than an empress.

The Spanish Empress Eugénie de Montijo.

Married to Napoleon III, emperor and last king of France.

(Translator #2) Eugénie de Montijo from France commissioned an architect to transform the castle by building galleries in the courtyard to fit it out as a residence.

Part of the damaged battlements were restored and also part of the external enclosure.

(narrator) More recently, Belmonte has been the setting for a number of film shoots.

One such case was the 1961 filming of El Cid.

Staring Charlton Heston.

One day, when the actor was leaving his caravan he claimed to have seen the ghost of a women looking out of a window in the keep.

It was never discovered whether this was true or just a product of the palace's power of suggestion.

♪ On the ruins of a roman settlement the Arabs who conquered the Iberian peninsula understood the importance of this hill and built this spectacular fortress.

♪ Almodóvar Castle.

♪ It stands in a strategic location dominating the course of the River Guadalquivir as it flows south towards Seville in Southern Spain.

The importance of this spot was also understood by the Christian nobles in their slow but steady task of reconquering captured territory.

We are talking about the 11th century when King Felipe VI who had just conquered Toledo was now looking towards Córdoba and Seville.

♪ The Muslim king of Córdoba gave his wife a safe haven, Almodóvar Castel.

Her name was Zaida and she is the protagonist of the legend that's still endures today in the fortress.

The legend has various versions.

Some say that Zaida, who had no news of her husband's death, could sense him from far away and from that moment on began to wander around the castle refusing to eat and drink.

Dying of starvation.

This is the legend of La Encantada.

The Charmed One.

♪ The more historical version has it that Zaida asked the protection from King Filipe VI who fell in love with her.

Some write that she was his lover.

Others say that she converted to Christianity, married the king and gave him his first male child, the heir to the thrown.

(translator #1) This child was to be the Lord of Castile and León and of Portugal but his father had the great idea of taking him to the Battle of Uclés against the Almoravids where he died at the age of 11.

Apparently, it was normal to take children to battles, even the heirs to the throne and this changed the history of Castile.

♪ (narrator) The reality is that ill fortune pursued this beautiful princess who lived out her days in the court of Toledo.

However, numerous employees working on the reconstruction of the castle eight centuries later, claimed to have been surprised by the sight of the ghost of a woman dressed in white with a sad appearance.

Appearing within the walls of Almodóvar.

(eerie music) ♪ In the 14th century it was for a long time the residence of King Peter I of Castile.

Nicknamed The Cruel.

Let's look at one of the reasons why he got his nickname.

Peter the Cruel would lock his prisoners in the dungeon at Almodóvar.

Below them was the death cell.

A common feature of several castles.

Prisoners were thrown down into a spherical door-less cell from a great height.

It was impossible to escape from there and the prisoners died of starvation.

♪ This cell gives rise to the legend.

Seeing that it was a place that no one could escape from Peter the Cruel had the idea of keeping his treasure there and installed a chain that could be used to descend and retrieve it if necessary.

And then, so the legend goes, he invented a macabre security system.

He brought in a trainer of venomous spiders.

So that the most lethal spider was permanently on the chain and the spider learnt that is the chain moved it had to crawl down immediately to attack whoever was hanging from it.

A malicious and twisted system.

Of that there is no doubt.

But Peter the Cruel was even more malicious.

He asked the trainer to train the spider to obey him as well.

And when he achieved his aim he beheaded the spider trainer.

The king didn't want anyone else to be able to reach the treasure at Almodóvar de Rio.

♪ This charming castle, 50 kilometers from Madrid is the Castle of Manzanares el Real.

The fruit of a royal donation and the brilliant historical period of the Mendoza family.

-The marquises of Santillana.

-The house of Mendoza is one of those great Nobel Castilian families that were able to compete with the kings in terms of power, prestige and patronage.

They were families with the ability to build palaces and castles and build hospitals just like the kings.

(narrator) And like other elegant nobles who feature in romantic legends and stories, the story of this castle is centered on an heir of the Mendoza family and a young, local shepherdess.

So what happened?

♪ In fact, Manzanares Castle is actually two castles.

700 meters away from the site of this one is where the old one stood.

The first to be built by the Mendoza family.

(translator #2) The first thing the nobles wanted to do when they received stately lands was to build their own castle.

A castle symbolized their power on earth and power over men.

(narrator) King John of Castile had donated these lands to Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza.

The fifth son of the first marquis of Santillana.

His son, Diego, built the first castle of which only these remains are left.

(translator #2) We can't say for sure whether construction was completed or whether at some point during its construction it was abandoned believing that the work had to be more ostentatious, more magnificent as was fitting for the Mendoza linage.

What is left of the old castle is a raised castle which legends and local historians tell us was destroyed so that the materials could be used to build the new castle.

But we can't say that for sure.

♪ (narrator) It appears that the first castle was not worthy of the family's nobility.

However, it is said that there was a tunnel that originally connected the two castles.

But just imagine having to dig a tunnel that also has to pass under the course of the River Manzanares.

(narrator) Nowadays, this water cause has given way to a reservoir that bears the name of Santillana in an area surrounded by mountains of granite rock.

A material that was used to construct the castle and which would have made digging a secret passageway very complicated.

The supposed passageway forms part of the legend known as the Marie Cantina legend.

It would appear that one of the marquis' of Santillana fell in love with a young goat herding from the village who they called Marie Cantina.

(dramatic music) The story goes that they both used this passageway to meet in secret.

However, the family forced the young man to marry someone of his noble rank.

(translator #3) And when she saw that she couldn't reach him she ended up dying of a broken heart.

♪ (narrator) Until just a few years ago, the village children would not venture near the castle where people claimed to have seen, on a number of occasions, the ghost of Marie Cantina wandering the battlements bemoaning her sad fate.

(translator #2) The nobles of this time like Íñigo López de Mendoza and others enjoyed great privileges and fortunes.

That allowed them to hold large banquets to regal their guests and also allowed them to exploit their lands as lords.

And also exploit the people who lived on their lands.

(narrator) The legend of Manzanares el Real is an excellent example of the extreme social differences that existed in the society of the Middle Ages.

♪ This enormous brick construction built just as we see it today in the 15th century was a luxury prison in a story that has become a royal legend.

The legend of Joanna, nicknamed Joanna the Mad.

The Queen of Spain who never reigned and who everyone claimed had a mental disorder.

Mota Castle also signified a huge step forward in fortress defense.

(eerie music) ♪ (translator #3) The castle was built as a defense fortress to fight off possible Muslim attacks.

Bearing in mind that when it was built the Muslim advanced towards the north of Spain was still not cut off.

(narrator) The first thing the Modeca builders did was sink the castle in an enormous moat which was not create to be filled with water but to prevent explosions from undermining the base.

It was also done like this to provide -three levels for shooting.

-Mota Castle has a great barrier of artillery which up to 100 gun ports on different levels which were used to cover the whole moat.

To sweep the different levels of the moat and create an almost impregnable defense.

Mota Castle was never conquered.

It is an impregnable castle.

(narrator) Those 100 canons were arranged in galleries measuring almost a kilometer long on the different levels of the outer wall.

(translator #2) And the galleries were combined with systems to evacuate the artillery gases and also water conduits to cool the artillery.

In other words, it was important for those chambers to be well ventilated and for those artillery pieces to be cooled because they were unreliable and sometimes exploded.

(narrator) With so much noise from the canon fire it was difficult to make yourself heard.

This is why the builders created distribution areas from which the officers gave orders that reached the wall clearly thanks to the carefully studied architectural design.

Designs such as the right angled entrance to prevent direct attacks on the main door and which culminated in a bastion design to prevent the artillery from being effective with the addition of round towers which repelled projectiles better.

(translator #1) These castles are sufficiently large to have dungeons and special rooms.

This explains why political prisoners, prisoners of war, ended up being prisoners in the monarchy's castles where they were always treated, as they say, like kings.

(translator #3) It was a luxury prison because it was used for more famous and well-known figures.

The cells were not the typical punishment cells that you see in other places.

(narrator) This was where Hernando Pizarro, brother of the Conquistador, Francisco Pizarro was imprisoned.

His puncheon for killing other illustrious soldiers earned him a 20 year stay in the prison at Mota.

And then there was Cesare Borgia, a Spanish nobleman and nephew of Pope Alexander XI taken prisoner in Naples in the war against Spain as an exemplary punishment he was incarcerated in Mota.

(translator #3) He escaped.

He was one of the few who managed to escape.

He did so from the keep but he was unlucky because the rope wasn't long enough to reach the ground and he had to jump the last few meters.

The legend goes that he was left with a limp caused by the impact.

(narrator) However, undoubtedly the most well-known prisoner in the castle was Joanna.

Daughter a Queen Isabella who has always gone by the name of Joanna the Mad.

Joanna never showed the slightest interest in matters relating to religion or the crown.

By all accounts, she was a very sensitive and introverted woman.

A wedding to Philip The Handsome, the incumbent Spanish Emperor in Flanders, gave him six children but she was always very jealous of her husband.

(translator #3) Joanna the Mad was imprisoned on the orders of her mother, Isabella the Catholic, because she wanted to leave to be with her husband Philip the Handsome in Flanders and the mother wouldn't let her because she said her daughter was beginning to show symptoms of madness.

(narrator) She was held captive for two years in Mota Castle on her mother's orders.

It is said that she would sit in her boudoir for hours gazing out of the window.

The death of her husband, with whom she was deeply in love, sank her into a depression that boarded on dementia.

Or so it was classified at the time.

The historical legend of Joanna has been revised in recent years in an attempt to show that she was never mad.

But rather a shy and insecure person who was forced to suffer in the imposing Mota Castle because of the Queen mother's strong personality.

In this bed, just a few meters from the castle, Isabella the Catholic dictated her will in which she recorded that the queen should be her daughter Joanna.

The queen who never got to reign.

♪