Underground Marvels (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 10 - Dover War Rooms - full transcript

Narrator: On England's coast,
how did a secret wartime bunker

Save thousands of allied soldiers?

And it was only in the
1980s that we realized

What an extraordinary history they have.

Narrator: In these dutch
tunnels, what spine-chilling

Discovery shook religious
and scientific communities?

All of a sudden you
find this terrifying skull,

And they were frightened.

Narrator: And in eastern europe,
the world's biggest labyrinth...

What secrets are just now being revealed?

Narrator: Beneath our feet
lie extraordinary chambers,



Caves, vaults, and tunnels...

The span and the size is just crazy.

...Some designed and built by humans,

Others formed over thousands of years,

But how are they created
and adapted, by who, and why?

You've got to face your fears.

Throughout history, subterranean life

Has captured our imagination.

We're going further and
deeper to unearth their mysteries,

Stories, and secrets.

The united kingdom, an island nation

That's always kept a
tight grip on its borders.

During world war ii, the
iconic white cliffs of dover,

Directly across the channel
from nazi-held France,



Became britain's last line of defense,

So behind the cliffs and
underneath dover castle,

An extraordinary
underground world was created

Not just to protect the
u.K. From the nazis,

But ultimately to thwart hitler

In the biggest rescue
operation of world war ii.

Coad: It was a most
remarkable organization,

Which effectively saved the british army.

Narrator: What made prime
minister winston churchill

Order the construction of these secret

Underground coastal defenses?

The work here was absolutely vital.

Narrator: What surprising
structures nearby laid the foundation

For early warning systems?

They were the absolute
cutting edge of technology.

Narrator: And what plan did
adolf hitler have for the castle

That he actually ordered
his bombers to spare it

As they rained destruction on the town?

♪

These chalk cliffs, 525 feet high,

Overlook the strait of
dover in south east England.

They form the most famous
stretch of british coastline,

Facing out towards northern France,

Just 21 miles across the english channel.

There's a long history of
tunnels at the white cliffs,

Mostly under the famous dover castle,

A significant defensive
landmark since the 11th century.

Intrigued by its underground worlds,

Historian and author jonathan coad

Has spent more than 40
years researching the castle.

Dover castle has a very long history

As a garrison fortress,
1066 right through to 1958.

Narrator: The castle has a three-story
complex of tunnels beneath it.

The earliest level built was casemate,

50 feet below the surface.

It dates back to the late 18th century,

When the u.K. Feared an invasion

By the emperor napoleon's french army.

Dover's garrison of soldiers was increased,

And because the castle ran out of space,

These extra barracks
were built underneath it.

Coad: These original
tunnels were begun in 1797

At the peak of the napoleonic wars

When there were about 2,000 troops,

Men could have lived down here for months.

Narrator: Once the british
troops had defeated napoleon

And his armies in 1815,

The casemate barrack
tunnel was no longer needed.

It lay abandoned for more than a century.

During world war ii,

It would play a vital
role against the nazis,

But to appreciate its role
in the allies' success story,

You have to travel 5 miles
down the coast to fan bay

Because their wartime histories

Would become inextricably linked.

Dating back to the first world war,

There's a secret tunnel here
going back 65 feet in the cliff.

It was originally built as
a shelter for the soldiers

Who manned these concrete
sound mirror structures.

Photographer joe pettet-smith
has been documenting these

And other surviving acoustic
mirrors along the south coast

Because his grandfather, bob smith,

Played a role in developing the technology.

The two here at dover
are part of a series of 13

That are still intact and remain.

When these were built originally,

They were the absolute
cutting edge of technology.

Narrator: Sound mirrors are
acoustic early-warning systems,

Which predate the develop
of radar in the 1930s.

They work by concentrating
sound waves into a central point,

So that they can be monitored
by a listening apparatus

Facing the curved surface,

So the engines of distant german bombers

Could be detected by the
british army during world war I.

Pettet-smith: So you can hear something far

Before you can see it on the horizon.

How can you possibly
try to get ground crews,

You know, in position to somehow defend?

These structures were that.

Narrator: Although the tunnel at fan bay

Would be abandoned after world war I,

The site would find a new
purpose sooner than expected.

In 1938, with world war ii inevitable,

The royal navy needed a strong site

For its command center
and chose dover castle.

50 feet below ground,

These tunnels were able to withstand

Any german aerial bombing raids.

Coad: It would be a
very, very difficult target,

So this was as good as it got
for a bomb-proof headquarters.

Narrator: The decision to revitalize
this base could not have been

More crucial to the fate
of over 300,000 soldiers.

During may and June 1940,
staff working here organized

And directed one of the most
daring rescues in history...

Operation dynamo,

Better known as the
allied retreat from dunkirk.

Coad: This is a very important
part of britain's 20th century history.

The evacuation from dunkirk was
planned and operated from here.

The work here was absolutely vital.

Narrator: Operation dynamo
witnessed the emergency evacuation

Of 300,000 british and allied troops

From the french coastal town of dunkirk

After they were surrounded
by the advancing german army.

933 ships were involved.

The dover control room was crucial,

With hundreds of staff

Involved in directing the evacuation fleet.

What was technically an
allied defeat turned into a victory

When so many soldiers were
brought safely back to England.

Coad: It was a most
remarkable organization,

Which effectively saved the british army.

Narrator: In adjoining rooms, extra
staff telephoned defense instructions

To soldiers along a 50-mile
stretch of british coastline.

Coad: We're now standing in the coastal

Artillery operations room here,

Which controls gun batteries
from as far west as hastings,

Right around to the south foreland.

But with the advent of radar,

With good radio and
telephone communications,

You get for the first time...

You can get a whole sequence of coastal

Defenses taking their
orders from one central point.

Narrator: With dover proving to
be an effective command center

For the coastline, a
large hole in britain's

Defenses was identified nearby at fan bay.

Volunteer guide gordon wise explains.

Churchill on a visit here, July 1940,

Sees a small convoy of ships
going through to dover strait,

And he asked admiral
ramsay if it was a british convoy,

And the embarrassed answer
was, "no, it's a german one."

Churchill got very, very
angry with that response.

Narrator: Up until 1940,

German boats could sail
close to the british coast,

Knowing that there
were insufficient defenses

To attack them.

Faced with such a major hole

In the country's coastline defenses,

Churchill ordered the
immediate construction

Of a series of garrisons along
the length of the south coast,

One of them being at fan bay.

In the 1940s, it would
have looked something

Like this surviving
german-built gun battery.

There was a group of concrete
platforms on the cliff top,

Each with a 6-inch
anti-aircraft gun at its center.

The fan bay gun battery and shelter

Were built in just 100 days.

Construction started in
the November of 1940.

Fan bay went operational
st. Valentine's day, 1941.

Narrator: The cliff top battery
would have been manned

By a garrison of 185 men and 4 officers,

Housed in the deep shelter 75 feet below.

From gun batteries and pillboxes

Like these along the south coast,

Soldiers scanned the horizon and
targeted enemy planes and boats.

This ended the practice of german ships

Coming right up to the british coastline.

The gun battery itself, three 6-inch guns,

Ranged about 14 miles.

♪

Narrator: But these efforts weren't enough

To protect the allied
forces from hitler's wrath.

Because of its close proximity to France,

Dover was britain's primary
frontline during world war ii.

The admiralty took
control of the port of dover,

Transforming the harbor into a naval base.

As a result it was heavily bombed,

Although hitler demanded
that dover castle be spared,

But why?

Narrator: Because of its
close proximity to France,

The castle and port of dover

Were turned into a naval
base during world war ii.

As a result, it was ruthlessly
targeted by the nazis.

German gun batteries in France

Started shelling the english coast,

And at the same time, the
german air force, the luftwaffe,

Began its fight with the royal air force

For control of britain's skies.

This 5-month campaign was
known as the battle of britain.

Dozens of british towns and cities

Were bombed during these german raids.

What was remarkable was that dover castle

Was spared destruction,

While the town was not so lucky, But why?

Hitler determined that
he wanted dover castle

To be his headquarters when
he eventually conquered britain,

So he instructed his army
to avoid bombing the castle

So he could use it for publicity.

Thankfully his plan never came to fruition,

But the town of dover was forever changed

By the nazi raids.

More than 200 civilians
were killed in dover,

10,000 buildings damaged,

And the town was
nicknamed "hellfire corner."

After the eventual allied
victory of world war ii,

Life returned to normal along the coast,

But the british government determined

Many of these wartime relics
were no longer necessary,

And in the 1970s, the
program "operation eyesore"

Cleared away unwanted buildings.

Surprisingly, the reason the sound mirrors

And the fan bay tunnels
survive in such good condition

Is because of this.

Wise: Underground
structures have been sealed up

So that nobody can get access into them,

And overground structures had
to be knocked flat and removed.

Narrator: The underground
shelter at fan bay

Was only dug out in 2014.

Fan bay actually remained
one of the best-preserved

Of all of the deep shelters.

Narrator: With the cutting-edge
sound mirrors of an earlier war

Making an ideal new
location for a gun battery,

And the repurposed 19th century tunnels

Saving over 300,000 allied servicemen,

Both of these underground
worlds would become important

In thwarting hitler's invasion plans,

And proof of the power of finding new uses

For military bases.

♪

The netherlands in northern europe,

Is best known for its tulips,
windmills, and wooden shoes.

It's also home to

An extraordinary underground world...

The st. Pietersberg caves,

Just outside the city of maastricht.

For centuries, this
enormous labyrinth of tunnels

Has preserved and protected the country,

Providing resources to help the area grow,

And providing protection
from hostile neighbors.

Narrator: Within them, a
monstrous discovery was made

That would send shock
waves through the religious

And scientific communities.

All of a sudden, they
find this terrifying skull.

Narrator: And when
maastricht became the first

Dutch city to fall under nazi control,

How did their covert resistance movement

Use these tunnels to outwit the invaders?

Narrator: Nearly a third of the netherlands

Sits below sea level,

Which makes the landscape very flat,

And 125 miles south of the capital

Amsterdam, on the border
with belgium, lies maastricht,

With one landmark that
stands above them all...

Mount st. Pieter.

On the surface stands an 18th-century fort,

And beneath it lies an underground world

That spans two countries.

Chantal berger knows it well.

Narrator: The st. Pietersberg
cave system runs 155 miles.

It's made up of two smaller networks,

Which sit on either side
of the national border.

The south, or zonneberg
caves, are in belgium,

While the noord, or north system,

Is in the netherlands under
maastricht and the fort.

Chantal leads the way
into the northern system.

Narrator: The bedrock is
limestone, 2 million years old.

When the enterprising locals
realized that under their feet

Was a valuable building supply,

They took advantage of the opportunity.

Narrator: What the farmers-turned-miners

Couldn't have realized at the time,

Was that within this same system of tunnels

Would be found a discovery

So shocking it would rock the world.

Schins: They had found
something very, very special.

Narrator: By the 1700s, the
french were plotting to invade

The netherlands and
exploit the local wealth.

To protect themselves from invading forces,

The dutch created this fort
on top of mount st. Pietersberg,

The highest point in
the city of maastricht.

Directly underneath
lies a series of tunnels

Used for mining limestone
that would create an ideal

Hiding place from the french.

Nevertheless, in 1794 the french

Managed to make their
way into these hidden caves.

Once there, they set off
explosives underneath the fort

In an effort to destroy it
and thwart the dutch forces.

Narrator: Unfortunately
for the french army,

Their charges were detonated
around 500 feet off target,

And the fort remained intact.

The tunnels themselves
played a crucial role

In saving the dutch fortress.

When the french released the explosives

Into the huge tunnel system,

The force was divided
into each individual tunnel

Rather than blasting
straight up to damage the fort.

The tunnel defense also
proved to be an effective offense.

The french soldiers
were killed by the blast

That funneled back at
them along these passages.

Narrator: With the french in retreat,

The limestone mining continued as usual.

Although the tunnel would
face an even harsher enemy

Come world war ii, in the 18th century,

There was another seismic
event in the noord caves.

Engineer and scientist wiel schins

Has studied the mining history
here for more than 2 decades.

Schins: The working
conditions were very, very bad.

It was dark.

People had only little light.

It was cold. It was humid.

It was very dangerous to work here.

So just fancy you are here
cutting blocks, sawing blocks,

And all of a sudden, you
find this terrifying skull.

Oh, it was enormous.

It was a huge thing, and they
were frightened, these people.

Narrator: The miners had
dug up a monstrous skull,

Nearly 7 feet long and 3 feet wide.

Schins: They had found
something very, very special...

"le grand animal de maestricht,"
the big animal of maastricht.

Narrator: It was the skull of a mosasaurus,

A long-extinct giant sea
lizard, nearly 50 feet long.

The skull was more
than 66 million years old.

Schins: This huge animal
that had the bite of a t-rex,

They were able to swallow
a turtle or a shark in one go.

Narrator: The skull was discovered in 1766.

It likely dropped to the
seabed millions of years before

And was buried by sediment,
creating the limestone bedrock

Which runs under this countryside,

And which the dutch miners
were slowly digging up.

As they were superstitious,

They didn't know how to handle it.

It was in the early 18th century.

Nobody was occupied with
fossils or geology or paleontology.

Narrator: The skull was a challenge
to centuries of religious teaching.

With all of the population
reliant upon the bible

To explain their world,

This undocumented creature
created confusion and even fear.

Exerting their power over the dutch,

Scientists back in France demanded

That the maastricht skull should
be confiscated for them to use

As evidence of a new evolutionary story

To challenge the religious order.

Schins: The church was very
powerful as a political power,

And these french people
wanted a scientific way.

They wanted to bring it to
France in order to improve

Their science activity,
and for that reason,

They brutally confiscated it here

From the owner and brought it to paris.

Narrator: The skull is
still in paris on display

At the museum of national history.

The citizens of maastricht have campaigned

For the return of their mosasaurus skull,

But the french thus far have not complied.

This mosasaur became
the very symbol of evolution

Throughout the world,

The very fossil of an animal
that proved evolution right.

It was amazing that it was found
here while people were working

Underground just to collect blocks.

Narrator: In the folklore of
the st. Pietersberg caves,

The prehistoric mosasaur lives on.

Local artist jules sondeijker
was so gripped by the cave space

That in 1900, he turned the monster

Into a tourist attraction
as part of an art installation

He helped to create in the noord caves.

Four generations later,
his great-grandnephew,

Jean jacques spuisers,

Is a guide here, proud to
show off his ancestor's work.

Spuisers: This was made in 1900,

And it maybe looks more like
a crocodile than a mosasaur,

But still is a very
amazing piece of art here.

Narrator: No one had discovered a
complete mosasaur skeleton by 1900,

So to tantalize the tourists,

Sondeijker imagined what
the body might have looked like.

He added feet and legs,
not knowing that mosasaurs

Didn't have them and
swam with fins instead.

Sondeijker wasn't only a sculptor.

These chambers are
full of charcoal drawings

That he helped to create
on areas of rock wall

That were specially cut and
smoothed for the purpose.

Spuisers: He made drawings
from charcoal for attracting tourists.

They were mostly wealthy people.

They could afford to travel in their time.

Narrator: While the maastricht
monster served a scientific purpose,

The tunnels here would later
face a far more sinister menace

When adolf hitler rolled out
his invasion plans for europe

In world war ii.

Narrator: During 1940,
hitler's army invaded

And occupied most of europe,

With maastricht
becoming the first dutch city

To be captured in may of that year.

Desperate to protect their
country's heritage and riches,

Dutch officials hid several
hundred valuable masterpieces

Within a vault in the noord caves,

Including the original
"nightwatch" painting

By rembrandt,

To keep them safe from the invading nazis.

Narrator: Nearly 13-feet
tall and 16-feet wide,

The framed nightwatch masterpiece

Would not fit through
the doors of the vault,

But the solution was simple...

They took it out of its frame.

Narrator: The germans were
aware of the art treasure trove,

But the story goes that they were content

To leave the paintings
safely stored in the vault.

They assumed that they
would be safe from any

Allied bombardment, and the germans

Could always move the
relics to berlin at a later date.

The dutch took advantage
of the germans' complacency

And hid other items in the vault,

And again, the caves proved
to be an ingenious defense,

This time in the war
effort against the nazis.

Narrator: Having been the first dutch city

To be captured in world war ii,

Maastricht went on to
be the first to be liberated.

The u.S. Army arrived in September 1944.

The st. Pietersberg caves have gone on

To be a leading attraction,

Drawing thousands of tourists every year.

It's like diving into a
totally different world.

Narrator: From the days of
protecting limestone miners

From invading armies,

To preserving masterpieces
of art and thwarting the nazis,

This remarkable underground world

Has played a vital role in
the netherlands for centuries.

♪

Narrator: Ukraine is the second
largest country in europe after russia.

It has a population of nearly 44 million.

The black sea coastal
resort of odessa is the location

Of one of the world's most
extraordinary tunnel networks.

We're inside the biggest
underground system in the world.

Narrator: Lying 197 feet underground,

These odessa catacombs are
an incredible 1,550 miles long.

Originally built to mine
limestone in the 18th century,

They've protected the
local people from danger

Through multiple wars,
including a nazi invasion.

But how did the tunnels
become a scene of great tragedy?

Zagnyboroda: If you scream, if you shout,

Nobody can hear you just 10 meters away.

Narrator: In the 1950s, when a
cold war nuclear shelter was built,

What technical problems
did the engineers discover?

And there is only one
problem with this water...

It's not recommended to drink it.

Narrator: And despite its storied past,

Why do locals believe
it has mystical powers?

There is no other
place in odessa like this.

♪

Narrator: On ukraine's southern
coast, as it reaches the black sea,

The port and coastal resort of odessa

Is famous for two architectural wonders.

The first, immortalized in the film

"battleship potemkin,"

Is the potemkin steps, a
flight of stairs that leads

Visitors from the black sea up to the city.

The second is the mighty catacombs.

Locals say it's the largest
tunnel network in the world

At 1,550 miles long.

Dr. Pavel zagnyboroda,
an army combat doctor,

Has been studying the
catacombs for 10 years.

He knows of more than 1,000
entrances all over the city,

But only one is open to the public.

Narrator: The odessa catacombs
started life in the late 18th century

As a limestone quarry.

The bedrock here is 5 million years old.

This limestone, it has proper
name, it's called coquina.

Narrator: Coquina is a strong
building material, and the local people

Believe it to have a
mystical quality of strength.

When odessa was founded in 1794,

The citizens started mining
it to build their homes,

But little did they
realize they would end up

Creating a vast tunnel network
that would play a major role

In the successes, lore,
and survival of their city.

We even have a kind of
saying that odessa was built

From underground.

Narrator: Reflecting its original
purpose, historic mining equipment

Is on display at the
center of the labyrinth,

And julia pelevina has
been guiding visitors

Around these exhibits for 2 years.

Narrator: In backbreaking conditions,

The miners would chisel
along the limestone seams

To force out large blocks,
or monoliths of rock,

Which would then be sawed into pieces.

Narrator: By the 1870s,

Odessa had grown to a
population of nearly 165,000 people,

And demand for the limestone
was high as the city expanded,

But in the 20th century,

The tunnels would find a new
use as they sheltered rebels

And offered defense
against wartime invaders.

Narrator: Following the
russian revolution in 1917,

Limestone mining ended
under the city of odessa.

New industries like
metalworking and machine

Building took priority
in the new soviet union,

And the catacombs were surrendered

To the criminal underbelly of the city.

Narrator: But during world war ii,

The tunnels once again
played a crucial role.

In 1941, nazi germany set their sights

On invading the soviet union.

Hitler's plan was code-named
"operation barbarossa."

Odessa was a key target,
and after a 4-month siege,

Fell to german and romanian
forces in October 1941.

82,000 citizens of odessa were killed,

And another 78,000 taken prisoner

As slave labor by the nazis,

But a local resistance movement called

The partisans attacked the
axis invaders wherever possible,

Using the tunnels as their base.

One group of partisans,
during the second world war,

They stayed in this part of catacombs.

Narrator: There were around
45 such resistance groups,

Totaling 6,000 fighters.

Their graffiti lines the tunnels,

And their posters are on display,

Calling for their property

To be reclaimed from the fascist invaders.

In retaliation, the axis soldiers sealed

Hundreds of tunnel exits,
hoping to kill the partisans.

In particular, one group of 13 men

Who were trapped is remembered.

Zagnyboroda: All the exits were blocked.

They couldn't go out.

Just to stay sane in this
condition is a sad story.

All of them died eventually.

Narrator: It's said that months of
living and surviving underground

In the darkness drove the partisans mad,

Causing them to kill each other,

But one man did survive
...aleksandr glushchenko.

He spent another 1 year
on his own underground.

Then he managed to get
to his home, just nearby,

And his wife hid him in the
catacombs under their house

For another year,

So he spent more than 3 years
underground and remained sane.

He's really a hero to me.

Narrator: While the catacombs
proved to be the safe haven he needed,

Life above ground
presented a shocking twist

To his story of triumph.

Because the partisans
weren't as successful as hoped,

After the war the soviets
wanted to suppress information

About glushchenko and his fellow rebels.

Instead of rewarding
glushchenko, they silenced him.

Unfortunately when the
soviet army freed the city

In a couple of days,
they just shot him dead.

They didn't want anybody
to know about the truth,

What happened to heroes of the war.

Narrator: In addition, all
traces of the partisans' existence

Were removed from the tunnels,

Including their discarded ammunition.

Some partisan groups
had set booby traps to kill

Any axis soldiers who
came looking for them.

These bomb traps needed
to be defused and removed.

This was a time of the liberation

Of our city from the occupational romanian

And german forces during
the second world war.

The military engineers, they
had to kind of clear up the place,

And when they finished checking,

They had to leave these sort of messages

For the rest of the people
that this place is safe,

So it says, "checked, no
mines," so it's a safe place now.

You can see here the date...
Since the 14th of April of 1944.

Narrator: With any signs of the
partisans removed from history

And the tunnels secure,
they were safe for use,

And they would be needed again

Much sooner than anyone expected.

Narrator: After serving as a
hub of resistance in world war ii,

The odessa catacombs
again provided defenses

During the cold war era.

From the 1950s to the late 1980s,

The soviets converted large areas

Of the catacombs into atomic bunkers,

Each of which could house
several thousand people

In the event of a nuclear attack.

There was a constant
fear of possible nuclear war,

Which could start at any time.

They built around 80 antinuclear
bomb shelters in odessa.

You can see how builders
changed the catacombs

For their purposes.

They didn't have to dig anything.

They already had big space underground,

But they needed to fortify
here some walls and ceilings.

Narrator: As part of the natural geology,

These rock layers are riddled with cracks.

It would have been impossible
for engineers to seal them

All against the shock
wave of a nuclear blast,

So they came up with an ingenious solution

To keep the shelters pressurized.

Zagnyboroda: It was supposed to
withstand very big pressure from outside,

So what they did, they
used their air-pump system,

And they created positive over
pressure inside of the shelter.

This pipe, a big pipe for air.

It's the same system works
in submarines, in planes.

So this way you create kind of airtightness

So nothing can get through from outside.

That is why air filtration
and air ventilation

Was so essential.

Narrator: Power for high air pressure

And other life support systems
came from huge engines.

They were lowered down vertical
shafts, which were then sealed.

Zagnyboroda: This place is really big,

And it was designed for
more than 5,000 people,

So they needed a lot of electricity,

A lot of power to keep this
place in proper condition.

Narrator: They also needed
a reliable water supply,

Which was siphoned from
deep within the catacombs.

These are actually water tanks.

They kept water in these tanks,

And they changed the
water here on a regular basis,

So they tried to keep it in
more or less fresh condition.

There is only one problem...
Officially it's not recommended

To drink this water.

Very high concentration of calcium,

So that is why you shouldn't drink it

For a long period of time.

Narrator: Thankfully, ukraine was
never attacked during the cold war,

And odessa citizens never
needed to stay in the shelters

Or rely on the calcium-rich water supplies.

When the cold war ended in the late 1980s

And the military powers withdrew,

The bunkers were abandoned
and their contents looted for scrap.

With such a storied past,

Even today the catacombs tempt trespassers

With their 1,550 miles of history.

With so much area to cover,

It's impossible to
monitor the full expanse.

Zagnyboroda: People just come down here.

It's really easy to get lost here.

Narrator: At least one person goes
missing in the catacombs each year.

Fortunately, the city has dozens of amateur

Subterranean explorers
who team up to find them.

Zagnyboroda: It's very difficult for
rescue teams to find those lost ones

Because this rock has
a very interesting quality.

It can absorb all the
noises, so if you scream,

If you shout, whatever you can do here,

Nobody can hear you just 10 meters away.

Narrator: Despite the dangers,
the local people think these tunnels

Have special qualities, and
the shustov cognac factory,

Which sits aboveground, opened a museum

In a small portion of the catacombs in 2013

To commemorate 150 years

Of maturing their prized cognac down there.

Woman: There is no other
place in odessa like this

Because they use the underground
spaces to store their cognacs.

Narrator: The shustov cognac has
always been kept in the catacombs

Because the people
believe the coquina limestone

Imbued it with a mystical quality.

The process of maturation
takes place underground.

The cognac itself,

It acquires the energy
of our odessa limestone.

Bottle is...

This cognac is 128 years old.

It's the oldest cognac
in the territory of ukraine.

Narrator: From the coquina mine,

Which provided the
limestone to build the city,

To the bomb shelters which
would have kept its citizens safe,

These catacombs have played a vital role

In the city's successes,
legends, and survival.

Zagnyboroda: Catacombs is a big
thing for odessa and for our people,

So we have buildings, safe houses, above,

And we have safe places underneath.