A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley

Recreating festivities from Henry VIII's era, Lucy Worsley dresses, eats, drinks, sings and parties like it is 500 years ago - discovering long-lost traditions as well as familiar customs.

2019-12-20 | en

Secrets of Highclere Castle

Known as the setting of "Downton Abbey," Highclere Castle truly was the home of aristocrats and an army of servants, with a rich past to share.

2013-01-01 | en

Cows Knocked Up by Fog

Catchy mix of farce and documentary. Portrait of a Berlin theatre company made up entirely of the homeless, alcoholics and junks. They call themselves ‘rats’ and take the film over to have a party.

2002-10-26 | de

Versailles Rediscovered: The Sun King's Vanished Palace

Based on the latest technological and scientific advances, this documentary explores the palace's architectural past to resurrect Louis XIV's vanished Versailles. Versailles was an ongoing building site at the time of Louis XIV and continued to be transformed by its successive occupants later on. The Versailles we know today only vaguely resembles the Versailles of the Sun King. Most of its original features and apartments no longer exist. Thanks to the digitisation of thousands of plans, a team of scientists takes us back in time to explore this forgotten past in a new way, through a large-scale reconstruction project to bring back the Versailles of Louis XIV as he designed it, according to his requirements and dreams.

2019-03-07 | fr

The Queen's Castle

Filmed over the course of a year in an "upstairs-downstairs" fashion, this fascinating program provides a behind-the-scenes look at life inside Windsor Castle -- the world's largest inhabited castle -- via unprecedented camera access. Highlights include a visit from French President Jacques Chirac; the Queen's arrival for the Order of the Garter ceremony; and the high-profile celebration of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles's nuptials.

2005-01-01 | en

The Most Dangerous Man in Tudor England

Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate the Bible into English, which made him a threat to the authority of the church and state.

2013-06-06 | en

She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

Helen Castor presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

2012-03-07 | en

The Occult Experience

An examination of occultism as practiced in different parts of the world.

1985-07-07 | en

Bienvenido Mr. Heston

Spain, 1961. Life in the small village of Torrelobatón, in the province of Valladolid, was turned upside down when the cinematic magic circus of a future Hollywood blockbuster, produced by Samuel Bronston, the rogue mogul of his own film empire, came to town: its inhabitants became participants and witnesses of the shooting of “El Cid,” a film directed by Anthony Mann, starring mythical actors Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. Those days, legends came alive.

2016-11-25 | es

Britain's Tudor Treasure: A Night at Hampton Court

Lucy Worsley and David Starkey celebrate the 500th anniversary of Britain's finest surviving Tudor building, Hampton Court. As Henry VIII's pleasure palace, Hampton Court was a showcase for royal magnificence and ceremony - and the most important event of all was the christening of Henry's long-awaited son, Prince Edward, on October 15th, 1537. Lucy and David explore how Tudor art, architecture and ritual came together for this momentous occasion. Drawing on historical records and with the help of a team of experts, they recreate key elements of the christening ceremony - including a magnificent set piece procession through Hampton Court involving nearly 100 people in full Tudor costume.

2015-01-10 | en

Châteaux d'Alsace

2011-03-09 | fr

The Last Days of Anne Boleyn

Writers and historians including Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory revisit the last days of Anne Boleyn, who in 1536 became the first queen in British history to be executed.

2013-05-23 | en

The Mundo King

Artist Rolf Schulz's pursuit to make his dreams come true through his endless toil to complete the majestic Mundo King Castle on a hill in the Dominican Republic

2019-06-09 | en

The Glorious Story of Castles

The Glorious Story of Castles Carriers of myths and legends, castles strongly mark our imaginations, appearing most often as the pivot of a dark and barbaric period. Reality is different. They are full of mystery and grandeur, emblematic abstractions of the Middle Ages, they testify to medieval civilization.

2018-11-01 | en

The Fairytale Castles of King Ludwig II

Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure - the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable - the castle of Neuschwanstein and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Today, these three buildings are among Germany's biggest tourist attractions. Dan Cruickshank explores the rich aesthetic of Ludwig II - from the mock-medievalism of Neuschwanstein, the iconic fairytale castle that became the inspiration for the one in Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, to the rich Baroque splendour of Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig's answer to Versailles. Dan argues that Ludwig's castles are more than flamboyant kitsch and are, in fact, the key to unravelling the eternal enigma of Ludwig II.

2013-07-02 | en

Chambord: The Castle, the King and the Architect

Chambord, the most impressive castle in the Loire Valley, in France, a truly Renaissance treasure, has always been an enigma to generations of historians. Why did King Francis I (1494-1547), who commissioned it, embark on this epic project in the heart of the marshlands in 1519? What significance did he want the castle to have? What role did his friend, Italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) play? Was he the architect or who was?

2015-12-05 | fr

A Castle Within a Castle

The castle of Krogen, built c. 1420, is inside the later castle of Kronborg. Reconstruction of Kronborg gave a chance to study early castles. Models of both are shown.

1954-05-16 | da

Chambord: The Leonardo Da Vinci Mystery

A building lost in the midst of a 5 000 hectare park, that's the equivalent of the surface of Paris, Chambord is the castle of all superlatives. Having required nearly 220,000 tonnes of stone to build, the Chateau de Chambord, in the Loir-et-Cher department, is an architectural gem. 156 metres of facade, it has more than 70 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. The castle commissioned by Francis 1st in the 16th century is also the most mysterious. The majestic monument has its share of mysteries: identity of its architect, influence of the Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci in its design, location in the middle of marshes in the heart of the forest and even longevity because it has survived through time without being damaged since the beginning of its construction in September 1519.

2018-11-20 | fr

Anne Boleyn: Queen For A Thousand Days

Lavish documentary in which historian Dr Suzannah Lipscomb unfolds the extraordinary story of the tumultuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and asks: was it really love that brought them together – and was it love that tore them apart?

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André Le Nôtre, le jardinier de Louis XIV

André Le Notre is certainly the most famous French gardener. He was also a designer, architect, engineer, landscaper and urban planner. He worked for Louis XIV from 1645 to 1700 and designed the gardens of Versailles, Vaux le Vicomte, Chantilly and Fontainebleau, as well as the Tuileries in Paris.

2014-12-31 | fr