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00:00From ancient temples to towering cathedrals, humanity's deepest beliefs have given rise
00:15to architectural marvels that defy imagination.
00:19How on earth is this possible?
00:21It's a type of building that inspires movies and fairy tales.
00:25You would not think that it was real.
00:27Faith, worship, and even fear have inspired the creation of unbelievable sacred spaces,
00:35each a testament to the power of devotion and human ingenuity.
00:40It is the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built.
00:46From the enduring mysteries of the pantheon...
00:48How did they raise this gargantuan structure?
00:51...to the gravity-defying wonder of Mont Saint-Michel...
00:54It looks like it's literally floating on the water.
00:57We pull back the curtain of how ancient builders channeled their reverence into feats of engineering that continue to captivate us today,
01:06pushing the boundaries of what seemed possible in their quest to honor the divine.
01:11Tales of a divine visit hint at the reason the gate survived.
01:15The archangel Michael tells him,
01:17you have to go set up a church and monastery on this island.
01:22It's conversion to Christianity and a church is what has saved it.
01:25At the heart of modern Rome stands an engineering triumph.
01:28A building of unparalleled design.
01:32At the heart of modern Rome stands an engineering triumph, a building of unparalleled design.
01:56You're walking through these sort of narrow, typical modern Roman streets, and all of a sudden the Pantheon's just in front of you, just sneaks up on you. It's amazing.
02:05Laying eyes on the Pantheon today evokes a real sense of wonder.
02:13It is a stunning architectural work, a perfect dome with an oculus at the top.
02:20You're left wondering how on earth they managed to construct it.
02:26Nearly two millennia after its construction, the Pantheon remains unrivalled, the sole structure of its immense scale and venerable age to have survived intact into the modern era.
02:39It is such an advanced structure that it took centuries for architects to fully appreciate and even attempt to replicate anything like it.
02:48The Pantheon has the largest unreinforced dome in the history of the world.
02:54What engineering secrets have enabled the Pantheon to prevail while other structures built at the same time have fallen into ruin?
03:06How did they raise this massive structure?
03:09Did these ancient Romans have an advanced knowledge of math and physics?
03:12And what inspired the ancient Romans to construct the Pantheon in the first place?
03:17Pantheon means all the gods, so you'd think by its name it would be a temple of all the gods.
03:24But it wasn't the normal thing to do. So it's a bit of a mystery exactly what it was.
03:29In the early 1500s, Michelangelo, one of the most influential and talented creators in Western art history, lays eyes on the Pantheon's dome and is awestruck.
03:42He claims to be angelic and not of human design.
03:46Over the course of history, many have tried to emulate the magnificence of the Pantheon's dome.
03:55Many modern structures have been inspired by the Pantheon, including St. Peter's Basilica, the U.S. Capitol Building and the Jefferson Memorial.
04:04But none have been able to replicate it on a scale of grandeur and size that we see with the Pantheon.
04:12The Schist's scale and complexity of raising the Pantheon's dome would have demanded an extraordinary investment of resources, labour and ingenuity.
04:23Who was responsible for making this happen?
04:29The bronze inscription adorning the Pantheon's facade offers an initial clue towards unravelling the mystery of its true architect.
04:38Across the front of the Pantheon is the famous inscription. In English, it says,
04:43Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, three times consul, made this.
04:50Marcus Agrippa was also important. He was the consul of Rome, which meant that he oversaw administrative life,
04:58including the construction of monuments, which would be dedicated to Emperor Augustus.
05:03In 27 BCE, Octavian Augustus becomes the first emperor of Rome, marking the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
05:15Julius Caesar had been ruled by a Senate. Now we have his nephew, Augustus, who would succeed him.
05:23His legacy was constructing this new administrative rule for the state in which he, as the ruler, held supreme authority.
05:34For Augustus, the stakes here are immense.
05:40Augustus comes to power after decades of civil war and establishes the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome.
05:49His rule will be defined by economic prosperity, stability and wide-sweeping infrastructure development.
05:58Augustus tried to bring back traditional Roman values.
06:03And one of the ways that traditional Roman values were embodied visually was in the architecture of Rome.
06:11This was the beating heart of this massive empire built on trade and military might.
06:19The structures that were built would not only serve the needs of Romans, but would also manifest his authority.
06:28At the heart of Augustus's vision is the transformation of Rome, reimagining the ancient capital as a symbol of imperial grandeur and efficiency.
06:38There's a famous saying which goes, Augustus found Rome brick and left it marble.
06:49For centuries, scholars and visitors alike accepted the Pantheon's inscription at face value, crediting construction of the Pantheon to Agrippa during Augustus's reign.
07:01We put great importance on inscriptions found in ancient monuments.
07:06These markings provide crucial information about the patronage, dating and purpose of the structure.
07:13However, when it comes to the inscription on the Pantheon, it has done more to confuse.
07:19This long-held assumption is challenged dramatically in 1892, when new archaeological evidence emerges, revealing a surprising truth.
07:31In April 2020, a massive sinkhole opens outside the Pantheon, exposing a hidden archaeological clue buried beneath the city's ancient streets.
07:44They find ancient Roman paving stones that date to the time of Agrippa.
07:49These appear to be the remnants of an earlier structure, meaning that the Pantheon we see today is actually a reconstruction built upon the foundations of an earlier temple.
08:00Further archaeological evidence and historical record reveals that Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed by a fire around 80 CE.
08:09Emperor Domitian rebuilds it, only to have it burned down again in a lightning strike in 110 CE.
08:18The one we see standing today is completed a decade and a half later in 125 CE.
08:25So if this isn't Agrippa's Pantheon, then who built the structure that we see in front of us today?
08:34The building as it stands now was built by Hadrian, a much later emperor.
08:40So why would Hadrian keep the inscription?
08:44The emperor Hadrian, one of the most significant leaders of the ancient world, rules the Roman Empire from 117 to 138 CE.
08:56He would become known as one of the five good emperors, a term that highlights a time when Rome was being led by capable rulers who prioritized the empire's well-being over personal gain or dynasty.
09:09Hadrian's rule is characterized by a shift from expansion to consolidation.
09:19He was a prolific builder and his passion for architecture led to numerous building projects in Rome and across the empire.
09:28He was someone who saw building as an important dimension of manifesting imperial power locally.
09:36By Hadrian giving credit to Agrippa for his original construction, this is a throwback to a very prosperous and wonderful time in the Roman Empire.
09:45It conveys the idea of continuity, continuity in the legitimacy of this imperial rule from the early Augustan dynasty now to this new dynasty of which Hadrian was a member.
09:59The question still remains, how did the Roman engineers achieve the seemingly impossible feat of constructing and raising the pantheon's massive dome?
10:11Standing in the middle of the pantheon and staring up at the dome not only hurts your neck but leaves you speechless, breathless as to the engineering and design skills involved.
10:26Did the Romans understand the laws of basic Newtonian physics long before they were defined?
10:32Did the ancient Romans recognize that the balance between weight of the dome itself and its span are absolutely inextricably linked?
10:41The lighter the dome, the further you can span it.
10:44One of these hints lie in their unique use of material.
10:49This material not only expands their engineering capabilities but helps them create structures of unprecedented durability.
10:58The pantheon is the living embodiment of the Urb Zeiturna, the eternal city.
11:04And one of the reasons for its longevity is a building technique that was so advanced for its time that in many ways it far surpasses what we use today.
11:14Roman concrete.
11:16For centuries, scholars and engineers have been captivated by the extraordinary durability of Roman concrete while failing to uncover its secrets.
11:29Modern concrete can break down in as little as 50 years.
11:33But more than a thousand years after the Western Roman Empire crumbled to dust, structures like the pantheon are still standing.
11:41How is this possible?
11:43The poets came to speak of Rome as the eternal city and its architecture was meant to reflect that.
11:50Why has it taken us over 2,000 years to crack the code on something that the Romans used so widely?
12:01Researchers had assumed that the key to the ancient concrete's durability lay in one ingredient.
12:08A specific type of ash that was described by architects and historians of that time.
12:15We're starting to understand what makes Roman concrete so special.
12:20So unlike concrete today, which uses sand, the Romans used volcanic ash.
12:26And when this volcanic ash was used as a filler and mixed with lime, it made the concrete incredibly strong.
12:33But recent investigations have unveiled another component in the ancient Roman formula that enables it to repair itself.
12:42The lime itself produces a very basic solution which leaves calcium hydroxide in water in pores in the cement itself.
12:52The volcanic ash material has a large content of silica.
12:58Silica is sand.
12:59So if you get a crack in it, what happens is the small amount of liquid water which contains calcium hydroxide moves into that crack.
13:07Some of the silicates react with that calcium hydroxide to produce more cementitious material again in the crack and heal it back up.
13:15So what the Romans actually created was a concrete that's essentially self-healing.
13:21But how did Roman concrete enable the execution of the Pantheon's revolutionary design?
13:30The secret is in the strategic use of concrete.
13:35Really what we want to do in domes is start out with a very thick base and get thinner as we go up because the stresses and the amount of material that we're actually supporting above gets less and less as we go up so we can have thinner and thinner walls.
13:50We actually get a structure that's easier to build, is lighter and is also more resilient because it doesn't have as much mass to start with.
13:58There are 140 coffers, which is a recessed square in the dome.
14:03They're arranged in five concentric rows.
14:05The coffers in the dome, they might have been strategically placed to reduce the material, to lighten that load of that dome.
14:15Despite these ingenious strategies, a fundamental mystery persists.
14:20How did the ancient Romans raise the colossal dome to the height at which it stands, considering the rudimentary technology of their era?
14:30Do you build that dome on the ground and then lift it into place?
14:33Can you lift it up on a large platform and then remove the platform?
14:37Do you shore it up from the ground and pour the concrete up high?
14:40Do you build those walls first and put it in place?
14:43There are lots of different ways that you might approach this.
14:47Which one is the most successful?
14:50I'd really like to know.
14:54The name Pantheon itself holds cryptic insights.
14:59What was the true intention behind this architectural marvel?
15:03Was it driven by reverence, obedience, or perhaps fear?
15:08The word Pantheon means all the gods.
15:11It's a bit unusual to dedicate a temple to all the gods, but the suggestion clearly is there.
15:18And the structure is there too.
15:20The dome meant to reflect the dome of the sky.
15:24And so, as a temple, it was a microcosm of the world, of the universe.
15:32In ancient Rome, the line between mortal emperor and divine deity was often blurred.
15:38Romulus was the son of the war god Mars.
15:44He was the first king of Rome.
15:46And the legend developed that the site of the Pantheon was the place where Romulus is deified and ascends to heaven.
15:56But although it would become popular later on, at the time when the original Pantheon was built,
16:03deification of Roman leaders was not a common or automatic practice.
16:08Over time, we find emperors playing upon the symbols of divinity.
16:15The idea that emperors are gods does gradually penetrate Roman religious culture as well.
16:21According to one historical source, Agrippa wanted to put a statue of Augustus in with the statues of the other gods inside the Pantheon.
16:31But Augustus refused, and so Agrippa put the statue of Augustus outside the Pantheon itself, in the portico out front.
16:40But it still associated Augustus with the gods.
16:47Hadrian's reconstructed Pantheon features a captivating architectural element
16:52that provides an alternative perspective on the building's true function, the oculus.
16:59The important part about the oculus is that it needs to be located concentric with the dome
17:03to ensure that the stresses that are experienced across the dome are all equal.
17:08It can't be offset. It really needs to be in that center.
17:11Structurally, the oculus could have been filled in with concrete material,
17:15but that concrete material would have to be incredibly thin.
17:18And so maybe there was constraints around how thin could they get that concrete
17:22before it was unable to be durable enough.
17:25Beyond the front doors of the Pantheon, the nine-meter-wide opening stands as the sole source of light.
17:34More than just admitting sunlight, it traces the sun's journey across the sky.
17:40One can imagine that, walking into the Pantheon,
17:43that you would immediately feel you're brought into an otherworldly space,
17:49because the light that comes through the oculus during the day infuses the entire environment,
17:55this very soft, glowing light.
17:58It evokes a otherworldly space through this play of light and dark.
18:08Recent research gives further credence to the suggestion
18:11that the Pantheon was constructed as a sophisticated solar calendar,
18:15marking dates of great significance to the ancient Romans.
18:20The study draws parallels between the temple structure and Roman-era sundials.
18:25For the past 2,000 years, if you happen to be in the Pantheon on April 21st,
18:31the anniversary of the founding of Rome,
18:33you're going to pay witness to an incredible spectacle
18:36as light from the oculus comes streaming down, focused directly on the main entrance.
18:42It not only speaks to the incredible sophistication of the engineering to even achieve that,
18:48it also shows how much cultural importance the ancient Romans placed on certain days.
18:56In the wake of Christianity's rise,
18:58many magnificent temples and monuments of ancient Rome
19:02faced a grim fate of neglect and abandonment.
19:06After several centuries of being the center of spiritual life in Rome,
19:11we find it falling into a long period of neglect.
19:14In 609, it's Christianized and turned into a church.
19:19And here again, it becomes an important center of worship in Rome.
19:24The shift in religious paradigm threatens to erase much of the city's architectural heritage,
19:30leaving many once-revered structures vulnerable to the ravages of time and changing cultural values.
19:36In the centuries that followed, much of the old city of Rome will disappear.
19:42Buildings will be dismantled, recycled into new buildings.
19:46Others will simply disappear underground.
19:49But not the Pantheon.
19:50The Pantheon, protected by its new status, will endure.
19:54What was it about this particular structure that allowed it to prevail when other monuments of its time did not?
20:03The newly restored church is dedicated as the Church of St. Mary and all martyrs.
20:09The Pantheon remains to this day the largest unreinforced dome structure in the world.
20:17That itself is a lasting legacy.
20:20Here we are 2,000 years later and it's still standing.
20:23It is still remarkable.
20:24It's a work of innovation in and of itself that hasn't been replicated.
20:29We're very lucky to have a building as unique as the Pantheon.
20:33Regardless of what your beliefs are, its conversion to Christianity and a church is really what has saved it
20:40and allowed us to still have access to such an amazing architectural wonder today.
20:45Off the coast of France stands a structure that seems to defy the very laws of nature.
20:53Reaching skyward in a daring testament to humanity's ambitions to touch the heavens.
21:01Much like the Pantheon, it embodies our ancestors' relentless pursuit of architectural and engineering ingenuity.
21:09Challenging the limits of human capability and imagination.
21:19Mont Saint-Michel is a sight to behold.
21:22It looks like something straight out of a movie.
21:25This fantastical sight has been compared to a mythical fortress.
21:31The type of building that inspires movies and fairy tales.
21:36It has endured for over a thousand years, defying powerful tides, treacherous quicksand, harsh weather and fierce sieges.
21:46And still stands proud.
21:48It looks as much like a fortress than it does like a monastery.
21:53What we see today reflects over a thousand years of construction and renovation.
22:01While Mont Saint-Michel has captivated imaginations with its legends and mysticism,
22:08the true wonder lies in the still unanswered questions surrounding the very real construction and endurance of this wonder of the West.
22:18How did these medieval builders erect this abbey on such a narrow pile of rock?
22:26Why the complete rehauling of the island's defensive structures?
22:32And how did this incredible structure end up so isolated out in the middle of the sea?
22:40According to legend, the island's transformation into a place of worship begins with a divine encounter in the year 708 CE,
22:55when the Bishop Aubert is visited by the Archangel Michael, a celestial attendant associated with courage and protection.
23:03According to popular tradition, in 708 Bishop Aubert is visited by the Archangel Michael and the Archangel Michael tells him you have to go set up a church and monastery on this island.
23:20And Aubert wakes up and he thinks, well, that was just a dream and he doesn't do anything about it.
23:28Three times the Archangel Michael supposedly visits Aubert.
23:32After three visions, he pokes Aubert in the head, leaving a hole in his skull.
23:40This is enough to convince the bishop and he resolves to build the church.
23:46On October 16th, 709, Bishop Aubert completes and consecrates the church, marking the official founding of what we now know as Mont Saint-Michel.
24:00As the story goes, Aubert dies just over a decade later and his remains are interred beneath the oratory he established.
24:08After a millennium of expansion and change, in 1792, a man claims to possess the ancient bishop's skull, marked with the divine wound inflicted by the Archangel Michael.
24:23Today, the skull is on full display in the nearby town of Avranches.
24:27But could it actually belong to Aubert?
24:33While believers maintain this tale, some skeptics suggest it may be the head of someone else.
24:40The prominent hole showing evidence of early medical procedures rather than a holy encounter.
24:45Stories like Aubert being visited by the Archangel Michael are actually incredibly common.
24:53It follows a tradition of hagiography.
24:56Hagiography are the stories that are written about saints.
25:00And it's where we get superheroes of sorts.
25:03They have powers that are bestowed upon them by God.
25:05A founding of an important monastery or a church always has much more impact if it's associated somehow with a superpower of sorts, somehow with a saint, somehow with an intervention by God.
25:22It makes the site all the more holy.
25:25With no physical remains of Aubert's original structure existing today, does the tale of his hand-built church hold any truth?
25:33Does the church really exist?
25:35If it were to be uncovered, what could it reveal about the island?
25:42In the 2000s, the first ever analysis of bricks from the chapel Notre Dame-Souterre hopes to reveal fresh insight into Aubert's original shrine, more than a thousand years after it was erected.
25:56The goal is to date this chapel to see if it is in fact the original.
26:04Employing a trifecta of cutting-edge scientific techniques, researchers delve into the secrets of the ancient structure.
26:12Analyzing approximately 100 bricks, their results promise to shed new light on the secret past of the chapel Notre Dame-Souterre.
26:21We look at what the bricks are made of and then we can match that with historical record to try to marry up what time period they were made.
26:30The results indicate that the chapel was constructed in two phases during the 10th century, one part in the first half and one in the second.
26:40One of the problems when historians or archaeologists are confronted with a structure is that it has changed many times over the years.
26:50And when we're trying to reconstruct what it was like at any one period, we're often left with a very incomplete archaeological record.
26:58Pieces of old buildings are reused in new buildings and that's where we need to turn to documentary evidence.
27:03And so that's where historians play a role because we'll be going through the archives looking for clues that there was already Christian monastic activity happening there.
27:13A stark contrast to the humble origins of Aubert's original church, the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel towers approximately 80 metres above sea level.
27:26Atop the Mont Summit sits the transept crossing, the central point of the structure, representing the intersection of earth and divinity.
27:36One of the responsibilities of the church as a whole was to make them both love and fear God at the same time and there's no better way to do that than with impressive architecture.
27:49So the whole Gothic architecture movement is really a chance to communicate to the lowest peasant and the highest noble that God lives among us here and we all need to be better Christians.
28:03Situated at such a steep elevation, however, the transept crossing is a daring architectural gamble.
28:12Not only is this the symbolic heart of the Abbey, but it is vital for distributing the weight of the church structure.
28:20Adding to the challenge is the fact that this was built on essentially a precipice of rock.
28:25It makes you wonder how did they get the labour force to Mont Saint-Michel, how did they get their supplies and materials needed to build and construct this building?
28:36With the potential for catastrophic failure looming large, one must ponder what compelling force or profound belief would drive the builders to undertake such a perilous and ambitious project.
28:48Pilgrimages happen because Christians want to get in close proximity to the relics of a holy person, a saint.
28:59To this day, the Benedictines in the Abbey claim to have the skull of Bishop Robert.
29:04Having an important saint in your monastery can be a real money maker in the Middle Ages because these people are essentially paying to be there.
29:11And Mont Saint-Michel was really the second largest site of pilgrimage in Europe for a good period of the Middle Ages.
29:19It attracts scholars, artists, musicians and pilgrims from across the continent.
29:26In 1060, Italian architect William de Volpiano is chosen to build the main church of the new Benedictine Abbey.
29:34So when a monastic reformer like De Volpiano is travelling around the continent and making these changes, he's not unusual.
29:42He's part of a larger trend of what's happening in the 11th and 12th century.
29:46It's this desire to standardize monasticism and make it better, desire to experiment with new forms of architecture.
29:53And that's what's happening when we come to Mont Saint-Michel.
29:57We have an effort to join in in that larger trend that's happening to better the site.
30:04Using modern advanced technologies like 3D scanning, scientists are still uncovering exactly how he did this.
30:14These ongoing studies revealed labyrinths of concealed passageways and previously unknown crypts.
30:21But the key to erecting the majestic Benedictine church atop Mont Saint-Michel lay in four crucial ones.
30:30It is built on four crypts, which is highly unusual.
30:34And these are intended to serve as foundations on what is essentially a very precarious foundation in this region.
30:42This is a dauntingly small rock bed, only about 10 meters in length.
30:48While this is a really narrow site to build on, the best thing about it is that it's rock.
30:55There are some challenges with working on rock.
30:58Sometimes the rock might be quite an uneven surface and you need to smooth that out.
31:03We kind of have to flatten the top of the hill off, but we don't have the technology to actually take the top of the hill off.
31:09So what we do is we make small flat areas by cutting away the granite and then we place a portion of our foundation there.
31:20And then we go up a little bit and cut another flat spot into the rock and repeat that.
31:26And then between each of those flat areas, we start building these vaulted arches.
31:31And we keep building vaulted arches upward until we flatten the hill top and then we can build our structure up from there.
31:40The layout and design of these crypts is carefully planned to align with the structures above them.
31:45We really need, with large structures, the ability to divide the weight and load of that building over a large area.
31:55And that's what the crypts are doing.
31:57Clearly these people who are designing and building this structure recognize the need to move those loads and divide the loads over the largest surface area of the hill that we possibly can.
32:09Mont Saint-Michel's battle-scarred walls reveal a fortress fortified by necessity.
32:17When we look at the archeological evidence around the development of the structure on Mont Saint-Michel over time, it clearly becomes increasingly more fortress-like.
32:28During the 13th and 14th centuries, the heart of the village was situated at the top, but over time, that village has migrated down to the bottom of the mountain, which is where we see it today.
32:38Mont Saint-Michel was itself serving a political as well as a religious purpose.
32:45So that structure was necessary to be a place of safety for those around them.
32:50This was a purpose that we find with many other religious institutions as well at this time.
32:55It's not uncommon to find a monastery that looks more like a fortress in some cases than it does like a monastery.
33:02Captain Louis d'Estouteville stands triumphant atop Mont Saint-Michel, having just vanquished his enemies against overwhelming odds.
33:14In the 15th century, Mont Saint-Michel comes under a siege that would last decades.
33:23According to legend, the sands around the fortress are stained red with their blood.
33:32This is the Hundred Years' War.
33:39The Hundred Years' War is a conflict that at least gets started because of a dynastic dispute in France.
33:44But it's also really about the territorial ambitions of both countries.
33:48For the better part of a hundred years, these two countries will go to war with one another.
33:52Due to its proximity to the border between Normandy and Brittany, the stronghold became a key location in this century-long conflict.
34:03During the Hundred Years' War, it marked an important stronghold for the French, one that they maintained throughout the war.
34:09Even when the English were at their highest point when they had routed French forces in many other locations, Mont Saint-Michel remained impenetrable.
34:17We do have one reminder of those efforts, and that is in two bombard cannons that they left behind, which are now affectionately known as Les Michelets.
34:33In the 19th century, renowned French writer and poet Victor Hugo lays eyes upon Mont Saint-Michel.
34:41Victor Hugo had gone to Mont Saint-Michel hoping for inspiration, but instead what he found was utterly shocking.
34:50Hugo describes Mont Saint-Michel.
34:53A round as far as the eye can reach, infinite space, the blue horizon of the sea, the green horizon of the land, clouds, air, liberty, birds in full flight, ships with all sails set.
35:11And then, all at once, on the top of an old wall above our heads, through a barred window, a pale face of a prisoner.
35:21I have never felt so strongly as here, the cruel antithesis which men sometimes mix with nature.
35:29This once great medieval cultural centre had been reduced to a poorly kept, brutal prison.
35:40It was something that affected him profoundly and something that he vowed to change.
35:44How did this site of profound spiritual importance become a place of confinement and punishment?
35:52In the late 15th century, the French king, Louis XI, figures out that actually it's a great location to send political prisoners.
36:02Many of the same physical characteristics that made it a functioning and long living Benedictine community also lent itself to being a prison later on.
36:14First of all, heavily fortified walls.
36:18It was very difficult to access, especially at high tide, and that meant it was hard to leave.
36:24Internally, it's structured in terms of cells that would already have had built-in chambers in which the monks would have lived.
36:33So, in that sense, it was an easy way to use existing institutions.
36:38Famously, Louis XI even designed a type of cage that was put into use at Mont Saint-Michel.
36:47It was a metal box where prisoners would be locked inside and it was soundproof and they'd be hung from the ceilings.
36:55This soundproof contraption cut off the prisoner from all human contact, serving as a severe form of confinement and psychological torment.
37:04We're used to experiencing the world around us through our senses.
37:08Now, you put somebody in this cage where you can't hear or sense anything.
37:13From the inside of it, you're cut out from the world around you.
37:16This is probably as close as you can get to simulating this feeling of no longer being alive, no longer being part of the world.
37:22Adding to this profound isolation, Mont Saint-Michel today boasts some of the highest tides in continental Europe.
37:32You know, at times it's an island, at times it's surrounded by quicksand.
37:37But has it always been this way?
37:39Ancient texts reveal a legend that might unlock the secrets of the tidal islands' geological past.
37:52The story details that the mount's surroundings were once part of a dense and expansive forest, home to a thriving village that lived in harmony with nature.
38:03After a great sin is committed by the villagers, a tidal wave destroys the forest, submerging it beneath the sea.
38:12The tide came in, washed the forest and the village away, and from that point onward, Mont Saint-Michel is the way that we know it now, surrounded by a turbulent ocean, alone in its isolation.
38:24While the enchanting story has been passed down through the ages, historical and geographical evidence suggests it may be more rooted in folklore than fact.
38:38Leaving the true origins of Mont Saint-Michel's landscape shrouded in mystery.
38:42Throughout history, the purpose and legacy of the structure is rewritten with each wave that crashes against its shore.
38:53Now, the monastery doesn't end then. It continues. They're concurrent. We have the royal prison and we have the monastery.
39:01But over time, those things begin to change. By the time we get to the French Revolution, there's only a handful of monks there.
39:06The revolutionary government that comes to power in France with the French Revolution, of course, puts an end to all monasteries in France.
39:14And the prison now takes on a whole new form. It's essentially the early modern equivalent of Alcatraz.
39:20And by 1863, some 14,000 prisoners had passed by Montsoir Michel.
39:30Their very experience would be utterly discombobulating. On the one hand, they're living in horrid conditions, suffering, torture and punishment, yet amid the most beautiful, awe-inspiring surroundings.
39:50Victor Hugo's visit to Mont Saint-Michel impacts him profoundly.
39:58He is inspired, along with other notable figures, to campaign for the monument's preservation and end its use as a prison.
40:07In 1874, Mont Saint-Michel is converted to a protected site and designated as a historical monument in France.
40:15Just as Mont Saint-Michel was shaped by devotion, an ancient sentinel was preserved by it.
40:29These structures, born of different eras and purposes, share a common thread.
40:35The enduring power of human conviction to shape our world.
40:38Towering above the German town of Tria stands an imposing remnant of the Roman Empire.
40:49The Porta Nigra stands as a remarkably well-preserved testament to Roman engineering.
40:56It's the largest surviving Roman city gate, north of the Alps.
41:01Its four-story structure showcases the architectural mastery of ancient Rome.
41:06But for centuries, details of the gate's past have remained cloaked in obscurity.
41:14When you look at the Porta Nigra, it's not like your prototypical gate.
41:19It's a much more fierce-looking structure, and it has the nickname of the Black Gate.
41:25Porta Nigra is one of four city gates surrounding Tria at the time, and one of many across the Roman Empire.
41:31So why is it the only one still standing?
41:36Tales of a divine visit hint at the real reason the gate survived.
41:42There's a story of a monk that lived within the walls of the Porta Nigra, and this is part of the reason why we think it still stands today.
41:48But who is this monk, and where does the story come from?
41:54The Porta Nigra is a very interesting example of these Roman gates that were massive.
42:01They were intended to be impressive.
42:02These are vital components of ancient infrastructure and urban administration.
42:10Clearly they were important in general, of course, for controlling movement in and out of cities, for example.
42:17But they used them in many other ways that speak to an interest in memorialization, and also as expressions of power.
42:24Unraveling Porta Nigra's place in Tria's history has proven an intricate challenge for historians to solve.
42:34Tria was founded by the Romans around 16 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Augustus.
42:42The city rose to prominence when the Roman general Agrippa constructed a road from Leon to Cologne in 39 BCE, enhancing its importance as a trade and military center.
42:56However, despite Tria's preservation of numerous Roman monuments, more than any other German city, much of its early history remains shrouded in mystery.
43:06At one point, it was turned into a church. Then, after a period of time, that part of the structure was demolished. Other modifications as well have sometimes gotten away of understanding its origins.
43:22Pinpointing its exact date of construction presents a massive challenge.
43:27In 2017, researchers unveil new findings that shed light on the timeline of this historical landmark.
43:37This carefully planned dig aimed to answer the long-standing question of when exactly the Porta Nigra was built.
43:45After several attempts, the team comes across an ancient piece of wood that will prove key in unlocking the gate's mysteries.
43:52Using tree ring dating, they are able to tie the timber to the year 170 CE.
43:59It's quite rare to find wood in the archaeological record. The conditions have to be exact. Most of the time, the soil has to be not acidic, more alkaline rich, as well as waterlogged, because the water keeps the wood from degrading.
44:17This discovery is a huge revelation.
44:19The city walls of Tria were constructed during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which was a time of relative peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire.
44:32If this is a time of relative peace, why build such a defensive structure?
44:39The Porta Nigra was constructed as part of a system of four city gates.
44:44Historical records, archaeological evidence, and the remarkable preservation of the Porta Nigra itself help us piece together what the original gate system would have looked like.
44:57The gate's original design featured twin four-storey towers flanking a central courtyard.
45:03The courtyard separated the gate openings on each side, creating multiple levels of protection and surveillance.
45:11So when we think about rocks and stone masonry, historically, we really couldn't cut them very accurately.
45:19What makes sandstone an interesting material for construction is that it's really formable.
45:24So even with wooden tools with stone implements on their end, we can actually form sandstone into complex shapes and form it very accurately.
45:36And then when we place those blocks together, even without mortar, we end up with a really rigid, self-supporting structure.
45:43Interestingly, despite its grandeur, the gate appears to be incomplete.
45:51Certain sections of the walls and pillars appear to be very roughly finished, which does not align with the precision of Roman building.
46:00Could looming events have interrupted its construction, or was it simply a matter of budget constraints?
46:07As the new millennium dawns, Trier welcomes an unexpected visitor, one who will alter the spiritual landscape of the city.
46:19So in 1030, a monk named Simeon arrives in the city.
46:23He'd been traveling with an archbishop, and he pretty much tried every way to be a monastic.
46:28He'd been a monk in Egypt, in a monastery. He'd been a hermit out in the desert.
46:32None of those things had been extreme enough for Simeon.
46:35And when he arrives in Trier, he decides he's going to take it up a notch.
46:39He's going to be an anchorite.
46:41An anchorite is someone who essentially dies to the world.
46:44They have themselves walled up permanently in some sort of structure where they can never leave ever again.
46:51Usually there's a small space and opening where food can be passed to them and where waste can be put out.
46:58But that's it. They will never, ever leave again.
47:01He has access to great monasteries and abbeys. So why would he choose this old Roman gate?
47:09Now the whole point of being an anchorite is to be seen by other people being an anchorite.
47:15It's the medieval equivalent of virtue signaling.
47:19And so the location he chooses has to be somewhere with a lot of traffic, a place where people are going to notice him being an anchorite.
47:27So where does he choose? The Porta Nigra.
47:31Simeon's request to be enclosed in Porta Nigra is granted.
47:36And a ceremony is held to mark the beginning of the monk's life as a recluse.
47:41During the ceremony, he's enclosed in a cell high in the gate tower.
47:48It's irreversible. Once you've made that choice, there is no turning back. You are living your life in that small, confined space.
47:55He spends his days in solitary devotion, praying and fasting.
48:01For poor Simeon, it lasted a total of five years. Five years and he died and his bones were buried there in the same cell where he had ended his days.
48:13This is part of the reason why we think it still stands today, because he spent time there, which enabled preservation.
48:20What motivated these monks to renounce this life was both a quest to connect with God in their current life, but also to be rewarded in the afterlife.
48:35Following St. Simeon's death, the ancient Roman gate is expanded to incorporate a magnificent medieval church in the revered monk's honor.
48:46What we see today has had its medieval iterations stripped away.
48:50And it's basically reconstructed in its original form to what people would have seen almost 2,000 years ago when they were approaching the gate.
48:58In 1803, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte lays eyes on the Porta Negra and becomes intent on returning the monument to its former Roman glory.
49:12It's very interesting and certainly revealing that Napoleon, when he came and saw the Porta Negra, his first response was to destroy the attached church.
49:23Now, why would he want to do that?
49:25That's because he wanted to evoke the imperial history of the gate and the church was not part of it.
49:34Napoleon saw himself connected to the Roman emperors of old.
49:39And so the Porta Negra, rather than it being a medieval realm, to Napoleon, it was a symbol of the great Roman past.
49:49Napoleon doesn't want to continue to fight to build a new legacy, but instead appropriate a legacy that has already existed.
50:00And in that sense, it's easier to build on, it's sort of like momentum.
50:04You start going back far enough, and it's easy to move forward.
50:08But if you're starting from today, every step is a journey.
50:13Bonaparte dismantles the church and monastery.
50:17And today, traces of the gate's religious extensions are all but eliminated.
50:23One of the issues with sandstone is it's really very porous.
50:27So if you're burning fires in the Middle Ages to keep yourself warm, the smoke is going to impregnate, especially the surfaces of the blocks.
50:37And as we move into the industrial age, we now have all of these industrial pollutants.
50:41Essentially, all of that pollution over many centuries has absorbed into the sandstone over time.
50:47And it's turned it from that natural sandstone color into being very black.
50:52Given its imposing appearance, it does give an allure to it by being this standalone black gate that's just there waiting to meet visitors.
51:04A sense of wonder and mystery will forever surround these monumental structures.
51:11The pantheon's dome, whispering of forgotten deities.
51:15Mont Saint-Michel's legends and visions and celestial guidance.
51:19And Port-a-Negra's unfinished stories echoing through the ages.
51:24These architectural marvels have revealed captivating secrets.
51:29Yet countless enigmas remain hidden within their stones.
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52:00Transcription by CastingWords
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