Europe From Above (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Spain - full transcript
NARRATOR: Spain.
From a unique aerial view,
we will review a nation
famous for its fierce history and passion,
where ancient traditions
converge with innovative technology
to form a country like no other.
In this series, we'll take an aerial tour
across Europe,
seeing its sights
from a brand new perspective.
Filmed from above
and over the course of a single year,
as the landscape transforms
through the changing seasons,
we will uncover the culture,
history, and engineering
that built the great
European nations we see today.
Spain, Europe's southern frontier.
It's bordered by the cold Atlantic Ocean
to the north,
and the warm Mediterranean Sea
to the east.
Spain is a land of color and passion,
where festivals and celebration
are the lifeblood of the community.
But it's also a place
of history and conflict,
where over thousands of years,
many diverse civilizations
battled for supremacy.
The Romans were
one of the first foreign superpowers
to make their mark
on Spanish culture 2,000 years ago.
Then, in the Middle Ages,
a Muslim empire from the south
and Christian kingdoms in the north,
fought for the right to rule the land.
Historic landmarks and fortresses
from these civilizations
still dot the nation today.
And from the air, it's remarkable to see
how well-preserved so many of them are.
Like Castillo de Malpica,
an Arabic fortress from the 10th century.
And Castillo de Consuegra
from the same period,
a stronghold
that flipped through the years,
between Muslim and Christian rule.
But perhaps nowhere
is Spain's cosmopolitan past better seen
than in one of the nation's finest cities.
Just north of Madrid, lies a place
so rich in historic architecture
the entire city is classified
as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is Segovia.
Here, three of Spain's
most significant landmarks
lie crammed shoulder to shoulder
in one small city.
It's summer,
and the hot sun beats down
on Segovia's historic treasures.
A vast Gothic cathedral
dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
It's 88-meter spire
was once the tallest in Spain.
A Roman aqueduct, so ancient,
it's hard to believe it's still standing.
And a 12th century medieval castle
perched high on a rocky crag.
The fort's mishmash of styles
is thought to have been an inspiration
for Walt Disney's Enchanted Castle.
Local historian, Néstor Marqués,
is Segovia's guardian angel.
He documents, records and monitors
the city's famous ancient buildings.
MARQUÉS:
I've always been in love with my city
and it's now a pleasure to work
for the conservation of its heritage.
NARRATOR: Segovia's famous aqueduct
bisects the city's central plaza.
It looks like a Victorian railway bridge,
but it's around 2,000 years old.
Viewed from high above,
it appears impossibly slim.
The Romans built it
to carry cool, fresh water
from the surrounding hills
into the heart of the city
along this narrow stone channel.
It's one of the best-preserved
Roman aqueducts
found anywhere in the world.
Roman engineering is so good
that we have the aqueduct still with us.
The aqueduct is one of the few examples
we have of this, uh, type of building.
NARRATOR: The aqueduct is iconic
to the people of Segovia
and they used it for water
right up until the early 1900s.
But today, a much-loved part
of the structure is missing.
For 500 years, a statue of the Virgin Mary
stood on this plinth,
watching out over the city.
But wind and rain
eroded its features so much,
it was removed for restoration.
Néstor and his collaborators
have spent the last three months
creating this near-perfect replica
of the statue.
Today's the big day that the replica
finally moves out of its workshop home,
ready for its journey
to the top of the aqueduct.
MARQUÉS: It will be great to have
the statue back in its place
and to have contributed
in such an awesome project.
NARRATOR: Néstor unpacks the replica
at the base of the aqueduct
and gives it one last check over.
The old statue was made
from soft limestone
and suffered badly from weather erosion.
The new one is made
from ground marble dust
mixed with resin,
a super-tough, modern material
that should be able to withstand
the passage of time.
Working on this huge, historic monument
is an immense responsibility.
The replica statue of the Virgin and Child
rises on the hydraulic platform
twenty three meters into the air.
A crowd gathers
to witness the moment of truth.
Spain is a Catholic country
and the Madonna had been the guardian
of Segovia for centuries.
The people are here to see
her returned to her rightful place.
It's a huge moment for Néstor
as the statue slots neatly into its niche.
Today was a great success
and it was a huge team effort to get here,
and it's an amazing feeling to see
everyone gather around the aqueduct today,
to see the statue back up.
So, it means they care
about their heritage and their city.
NARRATOR: Whilst Spain's center is home
to some of its most ancient buildings,
the Mediterranean coastline
is just as rich in architecture,
but with a distinctly modern twist.
The northernmost part
of this famous coastline
is home to Catalonia.
This region has a fierce sense of identity
and a history dating back
over 1,000 years.
But it's also dotted
with much more modern architectural gems.
In Figueres, the museum
of surrealist painter, Salvador Dali,
stands out brightly
against the town's beige buildings.
But perhaps the most spectacular
aerial sight in this region
isn't a single building.
It's the heart
of the region's capital, Barcelona.
Flying high over Barcelona
reveals a sight impossible to see
from the ground.
A large section of the city
is made up of row after row
of 800 seemingly identical blocks.
From above,
Barcelona's enormous city grid system
stretches out like
a giant terracotta chessboard.
Town planners built this modern metropolis
in the mid-19th century
as an overspill to the city's chaotic
and clustered medieval quarters.
Each block in the modern part of the city
is characterized by its distinctive
45-degree cut corners.
The design is an ingenious solution
to allow the city's tram drivers
to see around the bends.
From above, Barcelona's heart
appears perfectly geometrical
with one incredible exception.
Right in the middle of Barcelona
is the city's famous unfinished cathedral,
La Sagrada Familia.
Most European cathedrals
appear rigidly geometrical,
but here, there's barely a straight line
or right angle to be seen.
The stonework's organic lines
appear to melt and flow like hot wax.
This revolutionary cathedral
was the brainchild
of the maverick Spanish architect,
Antoni Gaudi.
Even today, Gaudi's non-conformist designs
are a rich source of inspiration
for modern architects
like Benedetta Tagliabue.
TAGLIABUE:
Barcelona is a very special city,
because it's very rational,
but in the same time,
sometimes you can find very special,
very crazy things,
and Sagrada Familia, for example,
is one of these crazy things.
NARRATOR: Despite its incredible
unconventional design,
La Sagrada is perhaps best-known
for being unfinished.
Workers have been slowly
constructing it for over 130 years.
But the end
of this mammoth building project
could soon be in sight.
In the next six years,
the final five towers
will rise up to surround
a giant central spire
which will soar almost
200 meters into the air,
changing the Barcelona skyline forever.
Gaudi's ground-breaking vision
has done much more than transform
Barcelona's urban heart.
It's inspired modern architects
to create their own geometry-defying forms
including Benedetta's astonishing
Santa Caterina Market
with its flowing, colorful roof.
TAGLIABUE: We didn't know
that this would be accepted in Barcelona
and we were very happy
when it was finished
that people loved it
and maybe they were prepared
to receive something
which was organic, colorful,
because the city of Barcelona
is a little like that.
NARRATOR: La Sagrada Familia
is an architectural wonder
that defines the city's skyline
and perhaps the spirit of the region.
From above, Spain is a nation
divided by color.
The south is an arid mix
of browns and yellows.
But in the north, mountains gather water,
painting them a brilliant green.
A series of long tributaries
join here to form the mighty Ebro River
and, together, these waterways
nourish the land around them
to help grow one of
the world's most celebrated crops.
This is La Rioja, wine country.
Each year, its many vineyards
undergo one of Spain's
most dramatic transformations,
as the hot summer sun
finally gives way to autumn.
Maria Urrutia is part of a family dynasty
that has been producing
Rioja's world-famous wines
for over 140 years.
URRUTIA:
Wine, it's my essence, it's my blood.
Walking through a vine,
picking up grapes, eating grapes.
It's family, it's joy. It is happiness.
NARRATOR: Through the summer months,
her many hectares of vines
grow new leaves,
so the plants can soak up sunlight
to fuel the growth of their fruit.
But as September arrives,
an astonishing metamorphosis takes place
as green leaves turn to golds and reds.
And the swollen grapes ripen.
It's late afternoon
and María takes her colleague, Valentín,
out into the vineyard
to see if the estate's premium grapes
are ready to be harvested.
There must be enough sugar
to make alcohol in the wine,
but not too much
or it will spoil the wine's flavor.
The sugar content looks just right.
María will start her harvest
early tomorrow morning.
As the sun rises on the morning
of María's grape harvest,
the picking team assemble.
Today, the pickers will gather grapes
for one of the estate's
most exclusive wines.
They pick them by hand to make sure
they don't damage the delicate fruit.
URRUTIA:: It's a hard job to do,
so it's very important
to have the right people, the right team,
to produce the best wine possible.
NARRATOR: María and her team
must collect 50,000 kilos of grapes
before the end of the day,
and the clock is already ticking.
An aerial view reveals
the extent of María's vast family estate.
It covers over 500 hectares.
She hopes to produce six million
bottles of wine this year,
but only 800,000 bottles of the exclusive
hand-picked wine they're gathering today.
This premium wine will sit inside
oak barrels for two years,
to create the smooth red fruit
and vanilla flavors
synonymous with fine Rioja wines.
Back in the fields,
María's workers finish the final rows
and load the last baskets
onto the trailer.
For the pickers,
it's a time for celebration,
but for María, it's a long waiting game
to see what this year's crop will bring.
URRUTIA: Harvest is
the most challenging moment,
but it's what keeps you on rolling
and wanting to move to the future.
NARRATOR: As well as fine wines,
Spain's temperate, fertile north
is also synonymous with fine foods.
The Basque city of San Sebastian
is renowned as a center
for fine-dining restaurants.
But inland from this gastronomic hub
lies something very strange indeed.
A traditional seaside industry,
a long way from the nearest coast.
The fertile Basque country is a sea
of yellow fields and green forests,
but just 60 kilometers from San Sebastian,
in the winding roads of the Añana Valley,
a patchwork of white squares
emerges on the surface of the landscape.
These are Añana Valley's famous salt pans,
a salt factory
like no other anywhere in the world.
Most salt pans evaporate seawater
to extract their precious crystals,
but Añana is tens of kilometers
from the sea,
so where's all the salt coming from?
Flying high above
the Añana Valley's salt pans
reveals their incredible secret.
An underground saline spring.
Deep below the valley,
water courses up through the remains
of a 200-million-year-old seabed.
By the time it breaks the surface
here in Añana,
the water is as salty
as the waters of the Dead Sea.
Edorta Loma comes from a long line
of salineros, or salt harvesters.
The way he works
is the same as his grandfather
and his great-grandfather before him.
-(Loma speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
As far as I know,
my family have been doing this since 1500.
Always salt, salt, salt, salt.
And when I die, let them bury me
with a pinch of salt.
NARRATOR: Edorta's salt is highly-prized
by the Basque region's famous chefs,
and can fetch over 20 euro a kilo.
To make it, the natural salty spring water
runs into a wooden channel.
Gravity then steers the water
through three kilometers
of branching pipes and channels
to storage wells,
ready to be fed into the giant drying pans
which give the valley
its patchwork appearance.
It's at this point
the hot, hard graft begins
because salty water
can only be turned into salt crystals
during the hottest part of the day.
-(Loma speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
We work around
our best fellow worker, the sun.
NARRATOR: While most of the country
shelters away from the midday sun,
Edorta and the team spread the salty water
across some of the site's
5,000-plus drying pans,
and as the early autumn sun beats down,
the water inside the pans evaporates,
concentrating the salts inside them.
They painstakingly stir each salt pan
until there's so little water left
that fine salt crystals begin to form.
Then, they must rely on the sun
to do the rest.
By late afternoon, the sun's rays
have evaporated away all the water.
The salt collectors can rake up
the dry salt crystals by hand.
It's hard work,
but Edorta and his colleagues will soon be
able to take a well-earned rest.
They can only collect salt
when the sun shines,
and the coming of winter will soon
put an end to their work for another year.
As the months march forward,
the days get shorter.
A dusting of snow coats Spain's highlands
and biting winds transform
its cold Atlantic coastline
into a maelstrom
of crashing waves and thick sea mist.
Winter has arrived.
This is Galicia,
Spain's most northwesterly region
and it's famed
for its treacherous Atlantic coastline.
The Costa da Morte, or Coast of Death.
Viewed from above,
the reasons for its name are clear.
These many kilometers of jagged rocks
are a graveyard for storm-swept ships,
but the harsh Atlantic conditions
are paradise for one seafood delicacy,
the goose-necked barnacle, or percebes.
These weird-looking crustaceans
sell for three times the price of lobster,
and local fishermen
go to extraordinary lengths
to capture them.
Juan Carlos and Manuel are percebeiros,
professional barnacle hunters.
-(speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
Barnacle hunting's
a very ancient art here in Galicia,
because we depend on the tides.
We cannot work every day.
Maybe we have around 15 days per month.
NARRATOR: The finest barnacles
live where the waves hit hardest,
so Juan and Manuel must swim
to the outer rocks to find them.
They can only reach the shellfish
when the tide is at its very lowest,
so they have just one hour
to collect as many as they can.
In the Galician winter,
high winds whip the surf
into a freezing white frenzy.
The swell is so severe
that Juan and Manuel
are the only percebeiros
working this part of the coast.
But that suits them just fine.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
It's best for us to go
when the sea is bad,
because we know we'll have
the barnacles to ourselves.
NARRATOR: The percebeiros
use a sharpened iron bar
to hack at the base of the barnacles.
Always keeping one eye out
for rogue waves.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
You have to have brains.
You have to be brave,
and you have to know what you're doing.
NARRATOR: Many percebeiros
have lost their lives
to the Costa da Morte.
But for men like Juan,
the ever-present dangers
are part of the attraction, too.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
For me, it's addictive.
It is somehow addictive,
because it gives you a great sensation,
and this job is very rewarding.
NARRATOR: Eventually, the rising tide
forces the daredevil fishermen
back to the shore.
But they've done well.
They have 16 kilos of barnacles
to take to the seafood market
where specialist traders
gather to select the finest seafood
for their exacting restaurant clients.
They're the only fishermen
with barnacles to sell,
and therefore get a good price,
600 euro for a day's work.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
My relation to the sea
is like the one I would have with my wife.
There's great moments
and there's also difficult ones,
but for me, it's my life.
NARRATOR: For centuries,
sailors have feared the Coast of Death,
but for the specialists
who dare to plunder its riches,
the rewards are great.
At the far eastern end
of Spain's green strip,
the land rises to form
some of the nation's highest peaks.
In the depths of winter,
this mountain range transforms
into a playground for adventurers.
Skiers take to the slopes
and mountaineers tackle the jagged peaks.
These are the mighty Pyrenees.
They separate Spain to the south
and France to the north.
The highest peak
stands at over 3,000 meters tall.
But a closer look
reveals a mysterious giant structure,
hidden deep at the foot of the mountains.
This is Canfranc International,
one of Europe's largest
and grandest railway stations.
From above, it's simply enormous.
The main building is 241 meters long,
with 365 windows and 150 doors,
but this mega structure
hides a bizarre secret,
because for over 40 years,
it has been abandoned.
In its heyday in the 1930s,
Canfranc served a lucrative train line
that ran through the Pyrenees
between Spain and France.
But the route gradually fell out of favor
and following a derailment in 1970,
the French authorities
finally closed the line.
Fernando Sánchez Morales
is the mayor of Canfranc.
He's part of a 27-million-euro project
to reopen the station.
-(Sánchez Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
The station was where every service was.
I used to come here
to the post office, to the doctor,
to the canteen, to the hotel.
The station was the life of the town.
NARRATOR: Fernando wants to bring
the station back to its former glory,
and put Canfranc back on the map,
by creating a tourism hub
that would include a hotel,
a new station building
and an international train line.
But Fernando's plans are controversial,
because Canfranc hides a dark history.
Canfranc played a key role
in the Second World War,
boosting the Nazi war effort.
Spain was Hitler's gateway
to the wider world.
During the war,
Canfranc became a critical transport hub
for Hitler to import iron and tungsten
into Germany, to build weapons,
and transport Nazi gold in return.
But right under his nose,
the very same carriages helped Jews
escape Nazi-occupied Europe.
-(Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
It was a train of freedom,
but on the other hand,
it gave advantages to Hitler
with the support of Franco.
It prolonged the war
and provided more materials to the Nazis.
NARRATOR: Despite its checkered past,
Fernando is optimistic
that Canfranc will once again
bring prosperity to the region.
-(Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
I'm excited,
completely excited to finish the project
and enjoy what will happen here
once it is done.
NARRATOR: As the year marches on,
the cold winter weather starts to retreat.
The foothills of the Pyrenees
erupt in a riot of wild flowers
as spring arrives across Spain.
As the warmer temperatures
spread across the country,
in the heart of the nation
golden sunflower fields burst into life.
Back in Segovia, historian Néstor
is still busy safeguarding the future
of the city's architectural gems.
Today, he's gearing up to finish a project
he has been working on
for the last few weeks.
This is the Alcázar of Segovia,
one of the world's most unusual castles.
Much of the castle's core structure
dates back to the Middle Ages
when it was home
to the Spanish Royal Court.
Christopher Columbus
met Queen Isabel of Spain here,
before he set sail
to discover the New World.
Néstor is part of a project
to ensure that the design
of this one-of-a-kind castle
is preserved for future generations.
For the past week, he's been using a drone
to photograph the Alcázar
from every angle.
He'll then stitch the images together
to create a pixel-perfect 3D map.
If the castle were ever damaged
by a natural disaster,
this digital blueprint could be used
to rebuild the Alcázar.
MARQUÉS: Video documentation
is the best possible way
to have this castle and heritage
preserved for centuries.
This is the best way we can assure
that all the structure is preserved,
even if, in some case,
it's damaged in the future.
NARRATOR: The final piece
in Néstor's giant 3D puzzle
is the Alcázar's towering front section.
Medieval builders
constructed this cliff-top wall
to make the castle hard to attack,
but it's position also made it
near impossible
for historians to study up close.
Until now.
We are able to get
a very precise 3D reconstruction
of any details the structure has.
NARRATOR: Modern drones
reveal the true scale
of the Alcázar like never before.
It's towers soar 80 meters into the sky
above its cliff-top perch.
It has 12 conical spires clad in slate
but these distinctive peaks
are relatively new.
They were added almost 400 years
after the castle was first built
and mimic the romantic style
of Central European castles.
The Alcázar is a unique combination
of Spanish and German architecture.
With the last remaining section
of scanning finished,
Néstor is finally able
to view the completed map.
He hopes that, in the future,
this map won't just allow historians
to rebuild the Alcázar...
it may also help them to uncover
its hidden secrets.
MARQUÉS: We see things
that we would never be able to see
with the naked eye.
It's much better to see the details
and here in the Alcázar,
uh, we have been able to see
the whole structure and the details
on the stones and, uh,
decorations of the building.
NARRATOR: Thanks to Néstor and his drone,
one of the highlights
of Spain's historic landscapes
is safe for future generations to enjoy,
no matter what the future may hold.
At the other end of the country,
in Andalusia,
the early spring sun
rises over Spain's most arid region.
Andalusia stretches
from the Atlantic in the west
to the Mediterranean in the east,
and it sits just 13 kilometers
from the coast of Africa.
Andalusia is a land of heat and passion.
It's the home of Flamenco music
and a once-thriving film industry.
Italian film director, Sergio Leone,
came here in the 1960s
to shoot his famous Spaghetti Westerns.
It was the closest landscape
he could find in Europe
to the American Wild West.
But a closer look reveals
something seriously odd
about the landscape here.
An enormous,
perfectly circular structure
appears to glow like a giant pearl.
This sci-fi vision
is a futuristic power plant.
It's designed to harvest energy
from the sun,
but these aren't solar panels.
They're mirrors.
Over 92,000 mirrors
are mounted on motorized platforms
called heliostats.
They're arranged to concentrate
the sun's rays
onto the top of a 147-meter tall tower,
heating its tip.
Inside the tower,
pumps force cool fluid to the hot tip.
The liquid heats
to well over 500 degree Celsius
and returns to the base
where it's used to drive steam turbines
and produce electricity.
Using nothing more than
the heat of the sun,
this plant generates enough energy
to power 25,000 Spanish homes.
The task of keeping this
mega solar power plant running
falls to site manager, Raúl Mendoza Ruiz.
Andalusia is one of
the sunniest areas in Europe
with 3,000 hours of sun per year.
We have an area of mirrors
that's 30 football pitches.
NARRATOR: For the plant to work
at peak efficiency,
all of the mirrors must be clean
and perfectly aligned.
But that's far from easy
in one of Spain's most arid
and dusty regions.
Raúl and his team monitor the state
of the mirrors from the control room.
Okay, Raúl?
NARRATOR: They receive an alert.
(speaking Spanish)
A sensor is reporting a problem
with one of the mirrors.
RUIZ: My mission in a normal day
is to produce energy,
so I have to check
if the mirrors are clean.
NARRATOR: If the mirror is dirty,
it will have to be removed for cleaning.
But first, Raúl has to find it,
and that's no small task
on a site the size of Monaco.
Site manager, Raúl,
races to inspect the alarm.
He needs to check the condition
of the mirror
and see if it needs replacing.
The longer the mirror is out of action,
the less efficiently the whole plant runs,
so Raúl has to hurry.
He eventually tracks down
the problem mirror
mirror and uses a reflectometer
to bounce light off the mirror
and check how dirty it is.
Surprisingly, it comes back clean.
Something else must have tripped
its ultra-sensitive sensor,
perhaps a passing bird.
It's a lucky break for Raúl.
The control room swings
the heliostat panel back into action,
and the plant returns to full efficiency.
Spain's southerly location
makes it ideal for collecting energy
from the sun's heat.
And Raúl's workplace is just
one of 50 solar thermal power plants
across the country.
Spain generates more energy this way
than any other nation on Earth.
RUIZ: I'm very proud of the fact
that Spain is one of the leaders
in the search of green energies.
NARRATOR: Andalusia's cutting-edge
solar plants are a modern phenomenon.
But this area of Spain is also home
to an industry
that stretches back 5,000 years.
Just 100 kilometers
west of the solar plant,
the landscape changes dramatically.
Swooping closer reveals
something astonishing,
a river that runs bright red.
This is the Rio Tinto.
Its name means "red river"
and tens of thousands tourists
flock here each year
to marvel at this natural wonder.
These colors are created
by mineral riches.
Ores of iron, copper, and precious metals
leech out of the landscape,
and to complete this other-worldly vision,
the abandoned remains of
centuries-old mining operations
lie scattered throughout the park.
José Francisco Dominguez
takes adventurous sightseers on tours
through this extraordinary place.
(speaking in Spanish)
(man translating in English)
What most attracts the attention
of visitors to this landscape
is the variety of colors.
The grays, the ochers,
that's what catches people's attention.
Perhaps it could be compared
to a lunar landscape
or a lot of the visitors on the train
comment that it even looks like Mars.
NARRATOR: The first people
to mine here
are thought to have kick-started
the Bronze Age 5,000 years ago.
Much later, the Romans came here
to mine precious metals for currency.
And in the 19th century,
British engineers expanded the site
on an industrial scale.
They built this train line
and dug out this enormous copper mine.
Today, the mining industry is gone
and a very different industry
has taken over.
Space scientists use the park's
Martian-like environment
to test mission equipment that may one day
land on the red planet itself.
And astrobiologists
study these acid-rich waters
to understand how alien life could thrive
on distant, chemical-rich worlds.
It's incredible to think
that this multicolored Spanish landscape
may one day unlock the mystery of life
beyond the stars.
Spain is a land of passions
and contradictions,
where ancient traditions thrive
side-by-side with modern innovation.
The landscape and climate
provide a wealth of natural resources
and a culture of creativity
is building a sustainable future.
This nation's ability to turn
contrast into harmony
makes it the great European nation
we see today.
From a unique aerial view,
we will review a nation
famous for its fierce history and passion,
where ancient traditions
converge with innovative technology
to form a country like no other.
In this series, we'll take an aerial tour
across Europe,
seeing its sights
from a brand new perspective.
Filmed from above
and over the course of a single year,
as the landscape transforms
through the changing seasons,
we will uncover the culture,
history, and engineering
that built the great
European nations we see today.
Spain, Europe's southern frontier.
It's bordered by the cold Atlantic Ocean
to the north,
and the warm Mediterranean Sea
to the east.
Spain is a land of color and passion,
where festivals and celebration
are the lifeblood of the community.
But it's also a place
of history and conflict,
where over thousands of years,
many diverse civilizations
battled for supremacy.
The Romans were
one of the first foreign superpowers
to make their mark
on Spanish culture 2,000 years ago.
Then, in the Middle Ages,
a Muslim empire from the south
and Christian kingdoms in the north,
fought for the right to rule the land.
Historic landmarks and fortresses
from these civilizations
still dot the nation today.
And from the air, it's remarkable to see
how well-preserved so many of them are.
Like Castillo de Malpica,
an Arabic fortress from the 10th century.
And Castillo de Consuegra
from the same period,
a stronghold
that flipped through the years,
between Muslim and Christian rule.
But perhaps nowhere
is Spain's cosmopolitan past better seen
than in one of the nation's finest cities.
Just north of Madrid, lies a place
so rich in historic architecture
the entire city is classified
as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is Segovia.
Here, three of Spain's
most significant landmarks
lie crammed shoulder to shoulder
in one small city.
It's summer,
and the hot sun beats down
on Segovia's historic treasures.
A vast Gothic cathedral
dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
It's 88-meter spire
was once the tallest in Spain.
A Roman aqueduct, so ancient,
it's hard to believe it's still standing.
And a 12th century medieval castle
perched high on a rocky crag.
The fort's mishmash of styles
is thought to have been an inspiration
for Walt Disney's Enchanted Castle.
Local historian, Néstor Marqués,
is Segovia's guardian angel.
He documents, records and monitors
the city's famous ancient buildings.
MARQUÉS:
I've always been in love with my city
and it's now a pleasure to work
for the conservation of its heritage.
NARRATOR: Segovia's famous aqueduct
bisects the city's central plaza.
It looks like a Victorian railway bridge,
but it's around 2,000 years old.
Viewed from high above,
it appears impossibly slim.
The Romans built it
to carry cool, fresh water
from the surrounding hills
into the heart of the city
along this narrow stone channel.
It's one of the best-preserved
Roman aqueducts
found anywhere in the world.
Roman engineering is so good
that we have the aqueduct still with us.
The aqueduct is one of the few examples
we have of this, uh, type of building.
NARRATOR: The aqueduct is iconic
to the people of Segovia
and they used it for water
right up until the early 1900s.
But today, a much-loved part
of the structure is missing.
For 500 years, a statue of the Virgin Mary
stood on this plinth,
watching out over the city.
But wind and rain
eroded its features so much,
it was removed for restoration.
Néstor and his collaborators
have spent the last three months
creating this near-perfect replica
of the statue.
Today's the big day that the replica
finally moves out of its workshop home,
ready for its journey
to the top of the aqueduct.
MARQUÉS: It will be great to have
the statue back in its place
and to have contributed
in such an awesome project.
NARRATOR: Néstor unpacks the replica
at the base of the aqueduct
and gives it one last check over.
The old statue was made
from soft limestone
and suffered badly from weather erosion.
The new one is made
from ground marble dust
mixed with resin,
a super-tough, modern material
that should be able to withstand
the passage of time.
Working on this huge, historic monument
is an immense responsibility.
The replica statue of the Virgin and Child
rises on the hydraulic platform
twenty three meters into the air.
A crowd gathers
to witness the moment of truth.
Spain is a Catholic country
and the Madonna had been the guardian
of Segovia for centuries.
The people are here to see
her returned to her rightful place.
It's a huge moment for Néstor
as the statue slots neatly into its niche.
Today was a great success
and it was a huge team effort to get here,
and it's an amazing feeling to see
everyone gather around the aqueduct today,
to see the statue back up.
So, it means they care
about their heritage and their city.
NARRATOR: Whilst Spain's center is home
to some of its most ancient buildings,
the Mediterranean coastline
is just as rich in architecture,
but with a distinctly modern twist.
The northernmost part
of this famous coastline
is home to Catalonia.
This region has a fierce sense of identity
and a history dating back
over 1,000 years.
But it's also dotted
with much more modern architectural gems.
In Figueres, the museum
of surrealist painter, Salvador Dali,
stands out brightly
against the town's beige buildings.
But perhaps the most spectacular
aerial sight in this region
isn't a single building.
It's the heart
of the region's capital, Barcelona.
Flying high over Barcelona
reveals a sight impossible to see
from the ground.
A large section of the city
is made up of row after row
of 800 seemingly identical blocks.
From above,
Barcelona's enormous city grid system
stretches out like
a giant terracotta chessboard.
Town planners built this modern metropolis
in the mid-19th century
as an overspill to the city's chaotic
and clustered medieval quarters.
Each block in the modern part of the city
is characterized by its distinctive
45-degree cut corners.
The design is an ingenious solution
to allow the city's tram drivers
to see around the bends.
From above, Barcelona's heart
appears perfectly geometrical
with one incredible exception.
Right in the middle of Barcelona
is the city's famous unfinished cathedral,
La Sagrada Familia.
Most European cathedrals
appear rigidly geometrical,
but here, there's barely a straight line
or right angle to be seen.
The stonework's organic lines
appear to melt and flow like hot wax.
This revolutionary cathedral
was the brainchild
of the maverick Spanish architect,
Antoni Gaudi.
Even today, Gaudi's non-conformist designs
are a rich source of inspiration
for modern architects
like Benedetta Tagliabue.
TAGLIABUE:
Barcelona is a very special city,
because it's very rational,
but in the same time,
sometimes you can find very special,
very crazy things,
and Sagrada Familia, for example,
is one of these crazy things.
NARRATOR: Despite its incredible
unconventional design,
La Sagrada is perhaps best-known
for being unfinished.
Workers have been slowly
constructing it for over 130 years.
But the end
of this mammoth building project
could soon be in sight.
In the next six years,
the final five towers
will rise up to surround
a giant central spire
which will soar almost
200 meters into the air,
changing the Barcelona skyline forever.
Gaudi's ground-breaking vision
has done much more than transform
Barcelona's urban heart.
It's inspired modern architects
to create their own geometry-defying forms
including Benedetta's astonishing
Santa Caterina Market
with its flowing, colorful roof.
TAGLIABUE: We didn't know
that this would be accepted in Barcelona
and we were very happy
when it was finished
that people loved it
and maybe they were prepared
to receive something
which was organic, colorful,
because the city of Barcelona
is a little like that.
NARRATOR: La Sagrada Familia
is an architectural wonder
that defines the city's skyline
and perhaps the spirit of the region.
From above, Spain is a nation
divided by color.
The south is an arid mix
of browns and yellows.
But in the north, mountains gather water,
painting them a brilliant green.
A series of long tributaries
join here to form the mighty Ebro River
and, together, these waterways
nourish the land around them
to help grow one of
the world's most celebrated crops.
This is La Rioja, wine country.
Each year, its many vineyards
undergo one of Spain's
most dramatic transformations,
as the hot summer sun
finally gives way to autumn.
Maria Urrutia is part of a family dynasty
that has been producing
Rioja's world-famous wines
for over 140 years.
URRUTIA:
Wine, it's my essence, it's my blood.
Walking through a vine,
picking up grapes, eating grapes.
It's family, it's joy. It is happiness.
NARRATOR: Through the summer months,
her many hectares of vines
grow new leaves,
so the plants can soak up sunlight
to fuel the growth of their fruit.
But as September arrives,
an astonishing metamorphosis takes place
as green leaves turn to golds and reds.
And the swollen grapes ripen.
It's late afternoon
and María takes her colleague, Valentín,
out into the vineyard
to see if the estate's premium grapes
are ready to be harvested.
There must be enough sugar
to make alcohol in the wine,
but not too much
or it will spoil the wine's flavor.
The sugar content looks just right.
María will start her harvest
early tomorrow morning.
As the sun rises on the morning
of María's grape harvest,
the picking team assemble.
Today, the pickers will gather grapes
for one of the estate's
most exclusive wines.
They pick them by hand to make sure
they don't damage the delicate fruit.
URRUTIA:: It's a hard job to do,
so it's very important
to have the right people, the right team,
to produce the best wine possible.
NARRATOR: María and her team
must collect 50,000 kilos of grapes
before the end of the day,
and the clock is already ticking.
An aerial view reveals
the extent of María's vast family estate.
It covers over 500 hectares.
She hopes to produce six million
bottles of wine this year,
but only 800,000 bottles of the exclusive
hand-picked wine they're gathering today.
This premium wine will sit inside
oak barrels for two years,
to create the smooth red fruit
and vanilla flavors
synonymous with fine Rioja wines.
Back in the fields,
María's workers finish the final rows
and load the last baskets
onto the trailer.
For the pickers,
it's a time for celebration,
but for María, it's a long waiting game
to see what this year's crop will bring.
URRUTIA: Harvest is
the most challenging moment,
but it's what keeps you on rolling
and wanting to move to the future.
NARRATOR: As well as fine wines,
Spain's temperate, fertile north
is also synonymous with fine foods.
The Basque city of San Sebastian
is renowned as a center
for fine-dining restaurants.
But inland from this gastronomic hub
lies something very strange indeed.
A traditional seaside industry,
a long way from the nearest coast.
The fertile Basque country is a sea
of yellow fields and green forests,
but just 60 kilometers from San Sebastian,
in the winding roads of the Añana Valley,
a patchwork of white squares
emerges on the surface of the landscape.
These are Añana Valley's famous salt pans,
a salt factory
like no other anywhere in the world.
Most salt pans evaporate seawater
to extract their precious crystals,
but Añana is tens of kilometers
from the sea,
so where's all the salt coming from?
Flying high above
the Añana Valley's salt pans
reveals their incredible secret.
An underground saline spring.
Deep below the valley,
water courses up through the remains
of a 200-million-year-old seabed.
By the time it breaks the surface
here in Añana,
the water is as salty
as the waters of the Dead Sea.
Edorta Loma comes from a long line
of salineros, or salt harvesters.
The way he works
is the same as his grandfather
and his great-grandfather before him.
-(Loma speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
As far as I know,
my family have been doing this since 1500.
Always salt, salt, salt, salt.
And when I die, let them bury me
with a pinch of salt.
NARRATOR: Edorta's salt is highly-prized
by the Basque region's famous chefs,
and can fetch over 20 euro a kilo.
To make it, the natural salty spring water
runs into a wooden channel.
Gravity then steers the water
through three kilometers
of branching pipes and channels
to storage wells,
ready to be fed into the giant drying pans
which give the valley
its patchwork appearance.
It's at this point
the hot, hard graft begins
because salty water
can only be turned into salt crystals
during the hottest part of the day.
-(Loma speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
We work around
our best fellow worker, the sun.
NARRATOR: While most of the country
shelters away from the midday sun,
Edorta and the team spread the salty water
across some of the site's
5,000-plus drying pans,
and as the early autumn sun beats down,
the water inside the pans evaporates,
concentrating the salts inside them.
They painstakingly stir each salt pan
until there's so little water left
that fine salt crystals begin to form.
Then, they must rely on the sun
to do the rest.
By late afternoon, the sun's rays
have evaporated away all the water.
The salt collectors can rake up
the dry salt crystals by hand.
It's hard work,
but Edorta and his colleagues will soon be
able to take a well-earned rest.
They can only collect salt
when the sun shines,
and the coming of winter will soon
put an end to their work for another year.
As the months march forward,
the days get shorter.
A dusting of snow coats Spain's highlands
and biting winds transform
its cold Atlantic coastline
into a maelstrom
of crashing waves and thick sea mist.
Winter has arrived.
This is Galicia,
Spain's most northwesterly region
and it's famed
for its treacherous Atlantic coastline.
The Costa da Morte, or Coast of Death.
Viewed from above,
the reasons for its name are clear.
These many kilometers of jagged rocks
are a graveyard for storm-swept ships,
but the harsh Atlantic conditions
are paradise for one seafood delicacy,
the goose-necked barnacle, or percebes.
These weird-looking crustaceans
sell for three times the price of lobster,
and local fishermen
go to extraordinary lengths
to capture them.
Juan Carlos and Manuel are percebeiros,
professional barnacle hunters.
-(speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
Barnacle hunting's
a very ancient art here in Galicia,
because we depend on the tides.
We cannot work every day.
Maybe we have around 15 days per month.
NARRATOR: The finest barnacles
live where the waves hit hardest,
so Juan and Manuel must swim
to the outer rocks to find them.
They can only reach the shellfish
when the tide is at its very lowest,
so they have just one hour
to collect as many as they can.
In the Galician winter,
high winds whip the surf
into a freezing white frenzy.
The swell is so severe
that Juan and Manuel
are the only percebeiros
working this part of the coast.
But that suits them just fine.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
It's best for us to go
when the sea is bad,
because we know we'll have
the barnacles to ourselves.
NARRATOR: The percebeiros
use a sharpened iron bar
to hack at the base of the barnacles.
Always keeping one eye out
for rogue waves.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
You have to have brains.
You have to be brave,
and you have to know what you're doing.
NARRATOR: Many percebeiros
have lost their lives
to the Costa da Morte.
But for men like Juan,
the ever-present dangers
are part of the attraction, too.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
For me, it's addictive.
It is somehow addictive,
because it gives you a great sensation,
and this job is very rewarding.
NARRATOR: Eventually, the rising tide
forces the daredevil fishermen
back to the shore.
But they've done well.
They have 16 kilos of barnacles
to take to the seafood market
where specialist traders
gather to select the finest seafood
for their exacting restaurant clients.
They're the only fishermen
with barnacles to sell,
and therefore get a good price,
600 euro for a day's work.
-(Costoya speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
My relation to the sea
is like the one I would have with my wife.
There's great moments
and there's also difficult ones,
but for me, it's my life.
NARRATOR: For centuries,
sailors have feared the Coast of Death,
but for the specialists
who dare to plunder its riches,
the rewards are great.
At the far eastern end
of Spain's green strip,
the land rises to form
some of the nation's highest peaks.
In the depths of winter,
this mountain range transforms
into a playground for adventurers.
Skiers take to the slopes
and mountaineers tackle the jagged peaks.
These are the mighty Pyrenees.
They separate Spain to the south
and France to the north.
The highest peak
stands at over 3,000 meters tall.
But a closer look
reveals a mysterious giant structure,
hidden deep at the foot of the mountains.
This is Canfranc International,
one of Europe's largest
and grandest railway stations.
From above, it's simply enormous.
The main building is 241 meters long,
with 365 windows and 150 doors,
but this mega structure
hides a bizarre secret,
because for over 40 years,
it has been abandoned.
In its heyday in the 1930s,
Canfranc served a lucrative train line
that ran through the Pyrenees
between Spain and France.
But the route gradually fell out of favor
and following a derailment in 1970,
the French authorities
finally closed the line.
Fernando Sánchez Morales
is the mayor of Canfranc.
He's part of a 27-million-euro project
to reopen the station.
-(Sánchez Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
The station was where every service was.
I used to come here
to the post office, to the doctor,
to the canteen, to the hotel.
The station was the life of the town.
NARRATOR: Fernando wants to bring
the station back to its former glory,
and put Canfranc back on the map,
by creating a tourism hub
that would include a hotel,
a new station building
and an international train line.
But Fernando's plans are controversial,
because Canfranc hides a dark history.
Canfranc played a key role
in the Second World War,
boosting the Nazi war effort.
Spain was Hitler's gateway
to the wider world.
During the war,
Canfranc became a critical transport hub
for Hitler to import iron and tungsten
into Germany, to build weapons,
and transport Nazi gold in return.
But right under his nose,
the very same carriages helped Jews
escape Nazi-occupied Europe.
-(Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
It was a train of freedom,
but on the other hand,
it gave advantages to Hitler
with the support of Franco.
It prolonged the war
and provided more materials to the Nazis.
NARRATOR: Despite its checkered past,
Fernando is optimistic
that Canfranc will once again
bring prosperity to the region.
-(Morales speaking in Spanish)
-(man translating in English)
I'm excited,
completely excited to finish the project
and enjoy what will happen here
once it is done.
NARRATOR: As the year marches on,
the cold winter weather starts to retreat.
The foothills of the Pyrenees
erupt in a riot of wild flowers
as spring arrives across Spain.
As the warmer temperatures
spread across the country,
in the heart of the nation
golden sunflower fields burst into life.
Back in Segovia, historian Néstor
is still busy safeguarding the future
of the city's architectural gems.
Today, he's gearing up to finish a project
he has been working on
for the last few weeks.
This is the Alcázar of Segovia,
one of the world's most unusual castles.
Much of the castle's core structure
dates back to the Middle Ages
when it was home
to the Spanish Royal Court.
Christopher Columbus
met Queen Isabel of Spain here,
before he set sail
to discover the New World.
Néstor is part of a project
to ensure that the design
of this one-of-a-kind castle
is preserved for future generations.
For the past week, he's been using a drone
to photograph the Alcázar
from every angle.
He'll then stitch the images together
to create a pixel-perfect 3D map.
If the castle were ever damaged
by a natural disaster,
this digital blueprint could be used
to rebuild the Alcázar.
MARQUÉS: Video documentation
is the best possible way
to have this castle and heritage
preserved for centuries.
This is the best way we can assure
that all the structure is preserved,
even if, in some case,
it's damaged in the future.
NARRATOR: The final piece
in Néstor's giant 3D puzzle
is the Alcázar's towering front section.
Medieval builders
constructed this cliff-top wall
to make the castle hard to attack,
but it's position also made it
near impossible
for historians to study up close.
Until now.
We are able to get
a very precise 3D reconstruction
of any details the structure has.
NARRATOR: Modern drones
reveal the true scale
of the Alcázar like never before.
It's towers soar 80 meters into the sky
above its cliff-top perch.
It has 12 conical spires clad in slate
but these distinctive peaks
are relatively new.
They were added almost 400 years
after the castle was first built
and mimic the romantic style
of Central European castles.
The Alcázar is a unique combination
of Spanish and German architecture.
With the last remaining section
of scanning finished,
Néstor is finally able
to view the completed map.
He hopes that, in the future,
this map won't just allow historians
to rebuild the Alcázar...
it may also help them to uncover
its hidden secrets.
MARQUÉS: We see things
that we would never be able to see
with the naked eye.
It's much better to see the details
and here in the Alcázar,
uh, we have been able to see
the whole structure and the details
on the stones and, uh,
decorations of the building.
NARRATOR: Thanks to Néstor and his drone,
one of the highlights
of Spain's historic landscapes
is safe for future generations to enjoy,
no matter what the future may hold.
At the other end of the country,
in Andalusia,
the early spring sun
rises over Spain's most arid region.
Andalusia stretches
from the Atlantic in the west
to the Mediterranean in the east,
and it sits just 13 kilometers
from the coast of Africa.
Andalusia is a land of heat and passion.
It's the home of Flamenco music
and a once-thriving film industry.
Italian film director, Sergio Leone,
came here in the 1960s
to shoot his famous Spaghetti Westerns.
It was the closest landscape
he could find in Europe
to the American Wild West.
But a closer look reveals
something seriously odd
about the landscape here.
An enormous,
perfectly circular structure
appears to glow like a giant pearl.
This sci-fi vision
is a futuristic power plant.
It's designed to harvest energy
from the sun,
but these aren't solar panels.
They're mirrors.
Over 92,000 mirrors
are mounted on motorized platforms
called heliostats.
They're arranged to concentrate
the sun's rays
onto the top of a 147-meter tall tower,
heating its tip.
Inside the tower,
pumps force cool fluid to the hot tip.
The liquid heats
to well over 500 degree Celsius
and returns to the base
where it's used to drive steam turbines
and produce electricity.
Using nothing more than
the heat of the sun,
this plant generates enough energy
to power 25,000 Spanish homes.
The task of keeping this
mega solar power plant running
falls to site manager, Raúl Mendoza Ruiz.
Andalusia is one of
the sunniest areas in Europe
with 3,000 hours of sun per year.
We have an area of mirrors
that's 30 football pitches.
NARRATOR: For the plant to work
at peak efficiency,
all of the mirrors must be clean
and perfectly aligned.
But that's far from easy
in one of Spain's most arid
and dusty regions.
Raúl and his team monitor the state
of the mirrors from the control room.
Okay, Raúl?
NARRATOR: They receive an alert.
(speaking Spanish)
A sensor is reporting a problem
with one of the mirrors.
RUIZ: My mission in a normal day
is to produce energy,
so I have to check
if the mirrors are clean.
NARRATOR: If the mirror is dirty,
it will have to be removed for cleaning.
But first, Raúl has to find it,
and that's no small task
on a site the size of Monaco.
Site manager, Raúl,
races to inspect the alarm.
He needs to check the condition
of the mirror
and see if it needs replacing.
The longer the mirror is out of action,
the less efficiently the whole plant runs,
so Raúl has to hurry.
He eventually tracks down
the problem mirror
mirror and uses a reflectometer
to bounce light off the mirror
and check how dirty it is.
Surprisingly, it comes back clean.
Something else must have tripped
its ultra-sensitive sensor,
perhaps a passing bird.
It's a lucky break for Raúl.
The control room swings
the heliostat panel back into action,
and the plant returns to full efficiency.
Spain's southerly location
makes it ideal for collecting energy
from the sun's heat.
And Raúl's workplace is just
one of 50 solar thermal power plants
across the country.
Spain generates more energy this way
than any other nation on Earth.
RUIZ: I'm very proud of the fact
that Spain is one of the leaders
in the search of green energies.
NARRATOR: Andalusia's cutting-edge
solar plants are a modern phenomenon.
But this area of Spain is also home
to an industry
that stretches back 5,000 years.
Just 100 kilometers
west of the solar plant,
the landscape changes dramatically.
Swooping closer reveals
something astonishing,
a river that runs bright red.
This is the Rio Tinto.
Its name means "red river"
and tens of thousands tourists
flock here each year
to marvel at this natural wonder.
These colors are created
by mineral riches.
Ores of iron, copper, and precious metals
leech out of the landscape,
and to complete this other-worldly vision,
the abandoned remains of
centuries-old mining operations
lie scattered throughout the park.
José Francisco Dominguez
takes adventurous sightseers on tours
through this extraordinary place.
(speaking in Spanish)
(man translating in English)
What most attracts the attention
of visitors to this landscape
is the variety of colors.
The grays, the ochers,
that's what catches people's attention.
Perhaps it could be compared
to a lunar landscape
or a lot of the visitors on the train
comment that it even looks like Mars.
NARRATOR: The first people
to mine here
are thought to have kick-started
the Bronze Age 5,000 years ago.
Much later, the Romans came here
to mine precious metals for currency.
And in the 19th century,
British engineers expanded the site
on an industrial scale.
They built this train line
and dug out this enormous copper mine.
Today, the mining industry is gone
and a very different industry
has taken over.
Space scientists use the park's
Martian-like environment
to test mission equipment that may one day
land on the red planet itself.
And astrobiologists
study these acid-rich waters
to understand how alien life could thrive
on distant, chemical-rich worlds.
It's incredible to think
that this multicolored Spanish landscape
may one day unlock the mystery of life
beyond the stars.
Spain is a land of passions
and contradictions,
where ancient traditions thrive
side-by-side with modern innovation.
The landscape and climate
provide a wealth of natural resources
and a culture of creativity
is building a sustainable future.
This nation's ability to turn
contrast into harmony
makes it the great European nation
we see today.