Cities of the Underworld – Full Series
Filed under: Documentary

Cities of the Underworld – Istanbul S01E01

Istanbul is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world. Once the capital city of three of the world’s most powerful empires–The Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman–its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to rise, fall…and rise again. Residents of Istanbul walk on top of remnants of these fallen civilizations…literally. Taxis drive over parts of Constantine’s Lost Great Palace; children play on cobblestone streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon; a high school sits on a 3rd century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman Hippodrome; and basement’s of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels and secret cisterns. Join host Eric Geller as he leaves the buzz of the city streets behind and follows the pull of the past. Teamed with leading archeologists and experts, Eric peels back the layers of the past–to reveal a hidden history that hasn’t seen the light of day for ages

Cities of the Underworld – Scotland’s Sin City S01E02

In this fascinating instalment of ‘Cities of the Underworld’, we delve into Edinburgh’s double life. Above ground, Edinburgh has long been a sophisticated and educated city. Today, it is famed for a world renowned annual arts festival surface, as well as a rich literary tradition dating back to the Scottish Enlightenment.

Yet while Edinburgh cemented its reputation as Scotland’s intellectual and cultural hub, a darker world expanded below. From plague victims being buried alive under the streets to body snatchers, illegal distilleries and castle dungeons, Edinburgh’s underground has myriad mystifying tales to tell. We join Eric Geller as he investigates these stories, separating tartan truth from Caledonian conjecture. He discovers the engineering marvel of Edinburgh’s underground, which was created when the city actually changed its street level.

Eric takes viewers on a gripping journey through a metropolis whose very existence was forgotten until recently. For almost 200 years, Edinburgh was surrounded by a giant defensive wall. Unable to expand its boundaries, it became the most densely populated city in Europe. The towering tenements of the Royal Mile are a direct physical manifestation of this massive overpopulation.

Cities of the Underworld – Hitlers Underground Lair S01E03

There are remnants of a dark past concealed beneath Berlin’s concrete streets and graffiti adorned architecture. There are still over a thousand Nazi bunkers engineered into the city’s sandy soil. Oddly enough, these lost remnants of Hitler’s ill-fated Germania were initially inspired by underground beer brewing plants. In this fascinating instalment of ‘Cities of the Underworld’, we join host Eric Geller as he travels through the dark and damp recesses of Berlin’s secretive soil.

Geller examines the history of Adolf Hitler’s Fuehrerbunker, the concrete complex of subterranean rooms which housed Hitler, his fellow Nazi leaders and his staff during the frantic final months of the Second World War. In April 1945, as Berlin was encircled by Soviet troops, Hitler committed suicide in his underground hideaway. The following day, Joseph and Magda Goebbels poisoned all of their children and committed suicide themselves.

Although Russian forces attempted to blow up the bunker in 1947, it proved to be fairly indestructible. Indeed, the East German communist government tried unsuccessfully to destroy it again in 1959. Its close proximity to the Berlin Wall meant that the site was undeveloped and neglected until after 1990’s reunification had taken place. Several parts of the bunker were unearthed during the construction of residential housing; in 1990, the bunker was reopened and photographed.

Government authorities are still rightly concerned about the site attracting unwanted adulation from Neo-Nazi groups. It is for this reason that the surroundings remain anonymous and largely unmarked. Many Berliners and visitors do not realise that history’s most infamous war bunker lies below the grey communist-era architecture. This programme gives viewers a unique insight into the underground labyrinth that occupies a key position in the history of the Second World War.

Cities of the Underworld – Romes Hidden Empire S01E04

The city is a place where the past meets the present on every road, as well as below them. A journey beneath Rome’s sophisticated sun drenched streets reveals a staggeringly interesting secret history. Infamous Roman emperors such as Caesar, Augustus and Nero have each left their marks on the city – and left remnants of their reigns underground.

We join charismatic host Eric Geller on an amazing journey through the city’s subterranean past. He outlines the details of a secret cult that practiced next to the famous Circus Maximus, revealing a temple which still remains beneath the street.

Beneath the Piazza Navona, which sits majestically at the top of Domitian’s Stadium, pieces of the emperor Trajan’s Basilica can be found under a gallery owned by fashion dynasty, Fendi. Eric shows us that Rome’s underground is filled with evidence of life during the Empire. Our enthusiastic presenter discovers what life was like during Nero’s tyranny and Augustus’ reforms, peeling back the layers of time in order to display the subterranean secrets of the Roman Empire.

Cities of the Underworld -Catacombs of Death S01E05

Paris is a vibrant capital city with a rich cultural and political history. Situated in northern France, on the River Seine, the ‘city of lights’ is a global leader in business, culture, art and entertainment. Attractions such as the twelfth century Notre Dame Cathedral and the picturesque, romantic streets. The distinctive Eiffel Tower, erected as part of the 1889 Universal Exposition, still dominates the city’s twinkling skyline.

Yet a disturbing alternative world lurks below the sophisticated streets of this cosmopolitan capital. In this ghoulish episode of ‘Cities of the Underworld’, Eric Geller gradually peels away the layers of time to access the dark subterranean secrets which lurk below even the most charming and genteel Parisian districts.

In this fascinating programme, presenter Eric Geller gives viewers an Eiffel of Paris’s subterranean delights. He unveils crypts filled with the bones of former residents, ancient waterfronts, waste-filled sewers, and hundreds of miles of labyrinthine limestone tunnels.

Our intrepid presenter visits the Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary, the ‘empire of the dead’ where over seven million Parisian skeletons are buried. As the city’s population expanded, the bones were placed here as over ground cemeteries reached their capacity. The disinterred remains are neatly stacked and aligned to form the walls of almost a kilometre of walking passage.

The process of moving the bones began in 1786, three years before Paris erupted into a storm of tumultuous and world-changing revolutionary fervour. The process of disinterring the bones from the cemeteries, moving them into the limestone quarries, and arranging them there took a number of decades. By the time this lengthy relocation process had been completed in 1860, five to six million skeletons had been moved to these creepy catacombs.

Geller investigates the numerous spooky stories which visitors to the ‘empire of the dead’ have to tell, and takes us on a comprehensive – and frequently unsettling – tour through the city’s sinister subterranean underside.

Cities of the Underworld – City of Caves S01E06

Budapest is a burgeoning Eastern European metropolis with a rich and exciting history. Hungary’s capital possesses a complex identity, poised midway between western luxury and simple eastern tradition. With its leafy avenues, elaborate bathhouses and attractive parks, the Pearl of the Danube continues to enchant and impress visitors.

The Romans settled in Budapest in the first century; they introduced modern architectural techniques such as the use of column, stone, plaster and arches. They also made abundant and impressive use of the thermal springs which lie under the city, creating the very first public baths. Indeed, Budapest was known as Aquincum during Roman times.

Some 500 years later, the Magyars – founders of the Hungarian nation – arrived on the scene. Subsequently, the city underwent invasions from the Mongols and the Turks. In the seventeenth century, Hungary became a province of the Hapsburg Empire.

After the First World War, Budapest emerged as the capital of a country only one third of its pre-war size, while the Second World War wrought major destruction upon the city. The 1956 uprising against post-war communist rule, and the collapse of the Soviet style regime in 1989, are also key moments in the city’s often embittered history. Today, Budapest is a modern, friendly and striking city.

Yet Budapest is perched precariously atop an ancient secret. During the ice age, a cavernous underground complex was formed beneath ground level. Subsequently, everybody from the cavemen to the communists have moved their city into the murky depths of this parallel world.

We join charismatic host Eric Geller as he reopens the sealed time capsule that lies beneath Budapest’s higgledy piggledy streets. Geller unearths a top secret Second World War era hospital; he also locates the source of the boiling healing water used by both the Romans and the Turks. As he peels away the layers of time, Eric reveals the layers of support added throughout the centuries to keep the modern city from falling into the ancient one buried below.

Cities of the Underworld – New York S01E07

New York is a major American metropolitan centre with a rich and interesting history. The City That Never Sleeps is the most populous city in the USA, and also one of the world’s most important business, financial and cultural hubs. The Big Apple is also crammed with iconic architecture and world famous tourist sites. The Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are just the tip of the touristic iceberg.

In this incredible episode of ‘Cities of the Underworld’, Eric Geller reveals that the underground of the twenty-four hour city also refuses to sleep. New York’s underworld is a living, breathing tangle of engineering, history, and secrets. Every year, over a billion people ride on the city’s legendary subway system, but there is a whole world beneath the city that no one gets to see. Top secret tunnels, subterranean mega structures – and even forts dating back to the 1600s – can be found lurking below the crowded city streets.

Grand Central is the largest and busiest train terminal in the world. Over 700,000 commuters pass through its historic main concourse every day. Yet even native New Yorkers do not know that beneath the station there is an elaborate world of abandoned ghost tunnels and hi-tech nerve centres.

There is also a room that was so top-secret during the Second World War that anybody caught inside it would have been shot on sight. The 80,000 square foot basement was the main power centre for Grand Central Terminal. A successful sabotage attempt would have stopped all troop movements and all war material movements.

Our host also unveils an off-limits train station located below one on New York’s most famous hotels. It was originally designed serve just one passenger: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eric also takes us to the original rivers and aqueducts that led New York’s ascent, braving a massive urban labyrinth where the past, present, and future collide.

Cities of the Underworld – Londons Lost Cities S01E08

London is Europe’s largest city, and is a leading cultural, business and financial centre. The most populous city within the European Union, it has an official population of around eight million people. An international transport hub and major tourist destination, for centuries it has been one of the most powerful cities in the world.

Above ground, London allows the eager visitor to feast upon a cornucopia of touristic treats. The city is a network of world heritage sites and towering landmarks such as Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. The British Museum, the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum are among a host of cultural and artistic attractions.

Yet another world lurks beneath the city’s congested roads, rainy streets and grey pavements. In this instalment of ‘Cities of the Underworld’, Eric Geller reveals a hidden warren of Roman baths, secret crypts, lost rivers and indestructible bunkers. Eric discovers the subterranean secrets found below all of London’s most famous landmarks.

The majority of people believe that London only has one river: The Thames. But a number of tributaries that were once open streams and rivers are now hidden beneath the city streets, diverted into sewers, drains and culverts. The Fleet – which gave its name to Fleet Street in EC4 – is the most famous of these ‘lost rivers’. It rises in Hampstead in the north and flows underground through Kentish Town and King’s Cross, to join the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge. In mediaeval times the river was central to a number of trades. Tanneries and slaughterhouses lined the banks of the Fleet; the dyes and blood turned the river various shades of red.

As our expert host slowly peels back the layers of time, he reveals Winston Churchill’s famous Cabinet War Rooms. This vast complex of secret bunkers was constructed beneath the streets of London during the Second World War. For the British prime minister and his cabinet, the rooms provided an invaluable refuge from the nightly onslaught Nazi air raids.

Cities of the Underworld – Beneath Vesuvius S01E09

Naples is a striking and culturally rich Italian city. It is the capital city of the Campania region and the province of Naples, and has a population of around one million. The busy city is bursting at the seams with history, and its streets are filled with monuments and churches.

Naples narrowly escaped meeting the same fate as its neighbouring city, Pompeii, in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius wiped out everything around it. The wind saved Naples that day, but life in the shadow of this massive volcano is unlike any other.

The city occupies a unique and precarious position in Italian geography. It is situated midway between the active volcano Vesuvius and a separate volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei (or ‘fiery fields’). Together, these components form part of the Campanian volcanic arc. This geothermal area runs from Vesuvius itself beneath a wide area including Pompei, Herculaneum, Naples, Pozzouli and the coastal Baia area. Over the course of several millennia, mining and various infrastructure projects have formed extensive, labyrinthine caves and underground structures in the zone.

For centuries, Neapolitans have carved out their underground, creating a parallel world where their secrets are safe. Entire neighbourhoods line the underworld, time capsules of ancient life – with banks, bakeries and homes preserved below. In subterranean Naples, there are old Greco-Roman reservoirs dug out from stone, as well as enormous and cavernous catacombs. During the Second World War, these tunnels were used air raid shelters; their walls still bear inscriptions which depict the suffering endured by ordinary Italian citizens as the world went mad around them.

From delving into an ancient Greek cavern to uncovering Nero’s famous stage underneath a modern apartment, Don Wildman steps back almost 2000 years to discover the world beneath the volcano.

Cities of the Underworld – Freemason Underground S01E10

From hidden tunnels beneath Boston to the incredible waterworld under Philadelphia, the Freemasons left behind the blueprints to America’s rise.

Cities of the Underworld – Draculas Underground S01E11

Don Wildman journeys beneath the intriguing streets of the Romanian capital Bucharest in search of the hidden world of Vlad the Impaler

Cities of the Underworld – Secret Pagan Underground S01E12

Cappadocia, a region in modern day Turkey, contans a subterranean world of defence where entire civilisations hid for thousands of years.

Cities of the Underworld – Underground Bootleggers S01E13

Portland is a clean, safe and progressive city. Don Wildman investicates the secret underground criminal past of the City of Roses

Cities of the Underworld – Rome the Rise S01E14

Eric Geller delves beneath the Italian capital’s vibrant streets to unlock the secrets of the birth and rise of the Roman Empire.

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