The Scandalous Secrets Of Florence's Uffizi Gallery

追加: 2026-05-05

[00:00:03]Florence, a city of intrigue and inspiration.

[00:00:10]And at its heart, a museum with secrets dark and strange.

[00:00:17]A fight to the [music] death, an alchemist's dream, and a crypt that conceals a lost soul.

[00:00:29]Secrets hidden in plain sight inside the Uffizi Gallery.

[00:00:55]>> [music] >> In the city of Florence, Italy, birthplace of the Renaissance, stands a former palace that is now one of the most popular museums in the world.

[00:01:09]The Uffizi is filled with works of genius by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci.

[00:01:17]>> [music] >> Today, tourists stroll through its galleries and in the streets beyond in perfect safety.

[00:01:24]>> [music] >> But in the 15th century, Florence was rife with intrigue and murder.

[00:01:34]So turbulent was this period that it recently inspired a hugely popular video game called Assassin's Creed.

[00:01:45]In this action-adventure game, players may be attacked by agents of the Pope, or a daring noble, or a wealthy citizen.

[00:01:58]The game takes [music] license with history, but not much.

[00:02:04]This was a real daring noble.

[00:02:07]The Duke of Urbino had himself painted in left profile because he lost his right eye while jousting.

[00:02:17]And this was a real wealthy citizen, Lorenzo de Medici, the head of a powerful family who controlled Florence like a mafia don.

[00:02:32]In Assassin's Creed, the Medici family is under threat.

[00:02:40]The conspiracy was real. The Pazzi conspiracy is actually a really complicated affair. Um it really is something right out of The Godfather movies, uh where we have a a Florentine family by the name of Pazzi, which actually gave name to the conspiracy itself. Um they're the eternal number twos in Florence during the 15th century. They kind of rode the coattails of the Medici family. The Pazzi would not be satisfied with that number two position, and I think that the Pazzi at this point kind of see a window, if you will, a way that they can actually now oust, bump the Medici out of power, and perhaps step in themselves as the leading family in the city of Florence.

[00:03:16]In this cathedral, on Sunday, April 26th, 1478, the Pazzis lay in wait for Lorenzo de Medici and his brother Giuliano.

[00:03:26]Giuliano walks in, from what we know, presumably makes his way down the nave of the church. He's trying to get closer to his brother [music] Lorenzo.

[00:03:35]Lorenzo goes down towards the southern end of the church there at the altar, and as more time passes, all of the conspirators are becoming a bit nervous, and they kind of jump the gun, if [music] you will. And instead of waiting until Giuliano is in the vicinity of his brother, Francesco de Pazzi, who seems to be the most impassioned of all the conspirators, decides that it's now or never. He pulls his dagger, and he [music] begins to violently inflict wounds on the person of Giuliano de Medici.

[00:04:00]He is stabbed 19 times.

[00:04:05]While this is happening, while Giuliano himself is being savagely murdered over there by the Porta dei Servi, Lorenzo instead finds himself in this part of the cathedral, [music] or down towards the southern side, uh very close to the high altar.

[00:04:18]Here, two more assassins attack.

[00:04:21]And so they grab Lorenzo and turn him around in an attempt to actually get a clear uh shot at him, [music] but it was enough to warn Lorenzo, who draws his own weapon.

[00:04:31]The Pazzis wounded him twice, but he escaped through these doors to safety.

[00:04:39]Lorenzo lived on, and history records that the Pazzi family conspired alone.

[00:04:46]But the real truth is a museum's secret.

[00:04:51]Historian Marcello Simonetta has been investigating the Pazzi conspiracy for decades.

[00:04:58]He was also an advisor for the Assassin's Creed video game.

[00:05:03]I had a lot of fun playing with the writers, uh trying to prevent them from doing uh egregious mistakes, but also [music] giving them more detail.

[00:05:18]During his research, Marcello discovered a letter sent to Pope Sixtus IV shortly before the attack.

[00:05:25]Some historians suspect that the Pope supported the Pazzi conspiracy, but the letter shed no light on the matter because it was encrypted. Nothing in it could be [music] read unless one broke the code.

[00:05:39]In the same archive were unencrypted letters to one of Marcello Simonetta's own ancestors.

[00:05:45]I found a lot of letters, and particularly there were some letters from uh Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke [music] of Urbino, to my ancestor Chico Simonetta.

[00:05:55]And these letters were very curious.

[00:05:59]The Duke wrote that on the day of the attack, soldiers had been seen outside the city, but he dismissed the reports as unfounded.

[00:06:08]So I got a bit suspicious about this, and slowly I realized that some military operation had to be ongoing in order for the whole conspiracy [music] to be achieved.

[00:06:20]But there were no reports of soldiers in Florence during the attack or afterwards, when the Pazzis were captured [music] by a mob.

[00:06:29]And this is where the plotters were hanged outside of the windows, and then their bodies were dropped on the floor of the square, and [music] the bodies were dragged around the city for days by the citizens of Florence outraged by the attack against the Medici.

[00:06:45]It's starting to look like the Pazzis did act on their own.

[00:06:49]But there is still that encrypted letter.

[00:06:52]At that point, I >> [music] >> remembered that my ancestor Chico Simonetta had written a treatise on how to decode intercepted letters from enemies.

[00:07:03]The code represents some words [music] as letter-number combinations.

[00:07:10]And so I started [music] using this code-breaking tips, and slowly I managed to break the code.

[00:07:17]The message assured the Pope that the attack on the Medicis would be backed up by soldiers.

[00:07:23]So while [music] the attack on the Medici brothers was ongoing, military forces that surrounded the city were ready to come in and seize it.

[00:07:33]But when the attack in the cathedral failed, everything changed. They were ready to [music] come in, but they never did. They simply had to uh hide away.

[00:07:43]Below the message is the signature of the one-eyed Duke of Urbino.

[00:07:48]So the Pope, Sixtus IV, and the Duke of Urbino, who had been organizing uh the military operation to seize [music] the city of Florence and uh destroy completely the power of the Medici, It was the kind of backstabbing move you might expect in Assassin's Creed.

[00:08:09]But in the mean streets of 15th century Florence, the game was real.

[00:08:18]In Florence, Italy, inside the Uffizi, there are galleries filled with beautiful women and equally beautiful men.

[00:08:29]Some are gods, some are demons, and some are tough guys.

[00:08:37]This is one of the most familiar statues [music] in the world.

[00:08:41]It is known simply as The Wrestlers, and that makes sense [music] because these men are Greeks.

[00:08:47]And the ancient Greeks invented the sport of wrestling.

[00:08:52]Wrestlers were the stars of the first Olympic Games.

[00:08:55]Their holds and rules are familiar to amateur wrestlers today.

[00:09:00]But this story isn't about wrestling because that's not what these men are doing.

[00:09:06]The martial arts depicted in this statue is a museum's secret.

[00:09:14]Our investigation begins at a training facility of the Italian Army, where elite paratroopers prepare for hand-to-hand combat under the watchful eye of Aris Makris.

[00:09:27]Aris hails from Montreal, Canada, the son of Greek immigrants.

[00:09:33]As a boy, he became obsessed with karate. I >> [music] >> slept, ate, drank, breathed martial arts since age of nine.

[00:09:42]Many disciplines have Asian names like judo, jujitsu, taekwondo.

[00:09:48]Aris tried them all, but then he stumbled upon a martial art that had a Greek name, pankration. That's what sparked my interest as a young as a young boy as a young Greek boy as a young Greek Spartan boy, you know, uh growing up in a Greek community and uh very bitten by the uh martial art bug uh to actually find out more about it. Aris discovered that in the Greek myth of the labyrinth, the hero used pankration to defeat the minotaur.

[00:10:18]And in the real world, Alexander the Great ordered his men to master it.

[00:10:24]But over the centuries, pankration became a lost art, surviving only in ancient images.

[00:10:31]I found the images very intriguing. I mean, it almost connected certain dots for me because many of the different martial arts I was doing did have similar techniques. I need to control the upper ground all the time, no matter what.

[00:10:43]>> Now, Aris travels the world introducing pankration to modern warriors like these Italian paratroopers.

[00:10:51]A lot of militaries, especially the ones that I've worked with around the world, they're trying to adapt to a pankration style type of uh martial art because it provides something that is complete.

[00:11:07]On the ground, pankration looks like wrestling.

[00:11:10]But when opponents stand up, it's more like bare-knuckle boxing with karate kicks.

[00:11:19]So far, these trainees have been pulling their punches, but that's about to change.

[00:11:25]You work your way up?

[00:11:26]>> Now, up. Now, you start up slowly.

[00:11:28]>> Later, we uh [music] train uh punches.

[00:11:30]>> The punches? And then you throw everything in. Yeah.

[00:11:47]Beautiful job, very beautiful work.

[00:11:49]Excellent work.

[00:11:50]That was a real fight, but believe it or not, they were still holding back.

[00:11:56]There are some pankration moves that were only used in ancient times.

[00:12:01]Single breaks, small joint breaks, eye gouging, biting and the temple, the back of the cervical spine, the groin area, from wrestling to striking to kicking. I mean, and that's what pankration means.

[00:12:14]Pankratos, pankration means all [music] powers, all-encompassing powers, everything involved.

[00:12:22]In pankration, anything goes.

[00:12:26]And that brings us back to the statue called The Wrestlers.

[00:12:30]That is the father of all sculptures.

[00:12:33]Okay, that represents pankration to the T. That is clearly pankration.

[00:12:38]Aris intends to prove his theory with the help of two volunteers. Okay, so now this leg will go on the inside. Oh, that's the hook. Exactly. So, this way the guy is locked in.

[00:12:50]He arranges their positions to mirror the sculpture precisely. And this leg over here is going to be out. That's The guy on top, although he is locked in in a perfect lock, single leg hook inside to make sure that he can hook himself and attach himself to the other guy's body.

[00:13:05]The other leg stretched out on the side to give him more like [music] a tripod position.

[00:13:10]The stance may come from wrestling, but one detail does not.

[00:13:14]What changes this [music] from being a wrestling move into a pankration move is the fact that he's got his hand up in the air in a striking position. His fist is closed. He sees you punching in the face, so he turns that [music] way. That's right, see?

[00:13:29]Now, if it was a strictly wrestling position, he would have his head tucked down, and this way we know that he's not going to he's going to try to avoid the guy from actually going in on him or going around his neck. Only he knows he's going to take a punch. He'd rather give the back of his head as opposed [music] to his face or the side of his head, his temple. So, the fist and the turning of the guy's head combined with the locking of the two bodies together is the ultimate [music] description or example of pankration.

[00:14:00]As this ancient martial art emerges from obscurity, perhaps the Uffizi sculpture will become known by its true name, the pankration fighters.

[00:14:16]The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy houses some of the most sublime images of the Italian Renaissance and some of the most disturbing.

[00:14:28]The face of this Medusa is a self-portrait of history's most antisocial artist, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

[00:14:38]He had absolutely no social skills. When it came to dealing with patrons, when it came to dealing with his models and almost anybody else, his friends, he would often um fight with them. He lived a life of drama and he had a belief in his own genius. He lived a life on the edges, [music] on the margins in every way. He also was a person who couldn't control his own urges and desires. He had sexual relations with women, but um he was a practicing homosexual and so that marginalized him in society. Was he the person you'd like your sister to marry? I doubt it very much. But is he a person whose art you would love to have on your wall and who would continually inspire [music] you with an understanding of the nature of the human condition?

[00:15:23]Absolutely.

[00:15:26]He painted the darkest subjects with a mastery of light.

[00:15:31]His talent made him famous and rich enough to afford the carnal pleasures he craved.

[00:15:37]But as time went on, he became unstable, easily enraged and prone to violence.

[00:15:46]Historians believe his deterioration was caused by the lead in his pigments.

[00:15:52]In this self-portrait, his teeth are green, a symptom of lead poisoning.

[00:15:58]But though historians have dissected every aspect of Caravaggio's life, one critical detail remains unknown.

[00:16:07]At the age of 38, he disappeared.

[00:16:10]His final resting place is a museum's secret.

[00:16:17]The investigation begins in the seaside town of Porto Ercole.

[00:16:22]In the local cemetery, researchers pry [music] open a hatch that leads to an ancient crypt.

[00:16:34]They believe that Caravaggio may be buried here.

[00:16:38]But identifying which bones are his will be like finding a needle in a haystack.

[00:16:45]The team is led by historian Silvano Vinceti.

[00:16:54]>> [music] >> But why look here in Porto Ercole?

[00:17:07]Why not search the crypts in Caravaggio's home city of Rome?

[00:17:12]The reason is Caravaggio didn't stay in Rome. In 1606, the hot-headed artist was goaded into a duel.

[00:17:21]After he killed the man, the authorities branded him a murderer.

[00:17:34]Caravaggio fled south to Naples, where he lived in hiding.

[00:17:39]Here, his painting depicted increasingly disturbing subjects, including these self-portraits with their heads cut off.

[00:18:00]Then, in 1610, a message came from Rome.

[00:18:04]A rich cardinal had arranged a pardon in return for three of Caravaggio's masterpieces.

[00:18:12]To deliver them, he would need to get to Rome without being arrested.

[00:18:17]He embarked on a sea voyage via Porto Ercole.

[00:18:21]But at a stop along the way, he was apprehended.

[00:18:26]He was separated from his paintings, and some historians believe he was murdered.

[00:18:37]But Vinceti believes that he wasn't murdered at all, that he escaped and made his own way to Porto Ercole.

[00:18:45]And if he did, there's a good chance his bones are in the local crypt amid thousands of others.

[00:18:58]>> [music] >> Based on sex and age, Vinceti's team identify 11 skeletons that could be Caravaggio.

[00:19:14]But they need to narrow the field to one.

[00:19:18]Then someone remembered Caravaggio's green teeth caused by lead poisoning.

[00:19:46]The presence of lead is intriguing, but lead paint was common at the time.

[00:19:51]To find more evidence, they'll need to saw through the bones.

[00:20:01]>> [music] >> DNA would provide a unique identifier if it's still present.

[00:20:14]>> [music] [music] >> Now the team has DNA to compare with the DNA of Caravaggio's living relatives.

[00:20:26]But there are no records of his descendants.

[00:20:30]So in the town where the artist was born, they seek out men who share his family name, Medici.

[00:20:37]When their DNA is analyzed, it turns out they also share a genetic heritage.

[00:20:51]Markers on these chromosomes match the Caravaggio sample perfectly.

[00:20:58]This is compelling evidence that the bones of Caravaggio, lost for 400 years, have finally been found here in Porto Ercole.

[00:21:23]>> [music] >> In death, as in life, Caravaggio's final journey is by sea as Vinceti and his team return his bones to Porto Ercole.

[00:21:45]The master of light was revealed in the darkness.

[00:21:50]But for those who love him, he may always be a lost soul.

[00:22:07]Inside the Uffizi, curator Fabrizio Paolucci oversees restoration of the museum's vast collection of statues.

[00:22:16]>> [music] >> Many are Roman imitations of Greek statues that were in turn imitated by the artists of the Renaissance.

[00:22:26]And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, few statues have been flattered more than this one.

[00:22:45]>> [music] >> The wild boar's popularity may have something to do with luck.

[00:22:54]At the center of Florence, there's a bronze replica with a shiny snout.

[00:22:59]For centuries, tourists have been encouraged to rub the snout to ensure good fortune.

[00:23:06]What makes a [music] wild boar a good luck charm?

[00:23:11]That is our museum's secret.

[00:23:17]Our story begins at a restaurant in Florence that specializes in Tuscan cuisine.

[00:23:24]And that's because the wild boar's luck is linked with the food that Tuscany is famous for.

[00:23:31]Dishes flavored with a fungus called a truffle.

[00:23:36]Black ones are expensive. White ones are ridiculously expensive.

[00:23:42]A truffle this size could set you back as much as a compact car.

[00:23:47]In Italy, the truffle industry is worth 400 million euros per year.

[00:23:54]In Florence, this delicacy is on the menu at the Cinghiale Bianco, the white boar.

[00:24:01]Truffle is something that you either totally fall in love with, and it could be dangerous cuz it's very expensive, or you don't like it at all. And I guess it's a little bit like oysters or caviar. It's a very refined kind of food.

[00:24:20]Truffles are expensive because they cannot be grown on farms.

[00:24:24]They grow underground in the Tuscan forest, the natural habitat of the wild boar. Wild boars love them, and their snouts have evolved to sniff them out.

[00:24:36]In the past, domesticated [music] boars were employed to help find truffles for their masters.

[00:24:43]But in their enthusiasm, the boars would often destroy as many truffles as they found.

[00:24:50]So today's truffle hunters, like Stefano Braccini, employ a special breed of dog called the Lagotto [music] Romagnolo.

[00:25:03]>> [music] >> These dogs have no urge to destroy the truffles, but they must be trained to retrieve them.

[00:25:13]>> [music] >> Stefano even gives puppies truffles to play with, which makes these truffles the world's priciest chew toys.

[00:25:49]As they mature, the dogs become obsessed with truffles.

[00:25:53]And while their noses can't match the sensitive [music] snout of a wild boar, a single dog can find truffles worth thousands of euros.

[00:26:04]Today, Stefano delivers a sample of his harvest to the white boar.

[00:26:13]For Marco, the nose knows. So first thing you do when Stefano brings his truffle, you check the consistency and you smell the truffle cuz the smell is important. It tells you if the truffle is good.

[00:26:32]Marco decides that Stefano's truffles are a worthy addition to the gourmet cuisine of Tuscany.

[00:26:45]But even the nose of a Tuscan chef isn't sensitive enough to detect the tasty truffle in the ground without a little help.

[00:26:54]And that brings us back to why a boar is a good luck charm.

[00:26:58]Because a nose that can sniff out buried treasure is surely worth a rub.

[00:27:05]The Uffizi Gallery was once the political headquarters of the powerful Medici family.

[00:27:12]In the 16th century, these rich commoners reinvented [music] themselves as nobility.

[00:27:19]The Medicis were known as schemers, but this Medici was a dreamer.

[00:27:26]Grand Duke Francesco I built the Tribuna, a chamber of dreams at the heart of the Uffizi, decorated with alchemical symbols.

[00:27:38]Shells for water, red velvet for fire, stone inlay for earth, and a weather vane for air.

[00:27:51]>> [music] >> It's governed by his belief in the four elements, and his desire was to find mechanisms to [music] transform one thing into another. So the Tribuna really is a kind of distillation of his thinking, in his worldview, [music] in his personality. This place that he was creating in order to engage in his mystical thinking.

[00:28:11]Francesco created another, stranger sanctuary just across the river from the Uffizi.

[00:28:21]Ghostly spirits loom, and pagan gods frolic, all for the delight of his lovely wife, Bianca.

[00:28:35]She was a dreamer, too, but their dream was cut short.

[00:28:41]During a visit to their country villa in 1587, both Francesco and Bianca fell ill and died within days of each other.

[00:28:51]Francesco's younger brother, Cardinal Ferdinando, ordered an autopsy that determined malaria was the cause of death.

[00:29:02]Malaria was common in the swampy countryside, but there were rumors of foul play.

[00:29:09]How and why did Francesco and Bianca die?

[00:29:14]That is our museum's secret.

[00:29:21]Our investigation begins beneath the Chapel of San Lorenzo in the crypt of the Medicis.

[00:29:28]Recently, researchers exhumed human remains hoping to discover the causes of death of many members of the family.

[00:29:37]The team's medical historian is Donatella Lippi. We found the the corpses of the Grand Dukes of [music] Tuscany in a small zinc boxes in the box belonging to Francesco [music] the first, we found only his bones.

[00:29:56]When Francesco's bones were tested, they found DNA.

[00:30:00]But no evidence of why he died. And as for his wife, Bianca, her bones weren't allowed in the family crypt.

[00:30:08]By order of Francesco's brother, Ferdinando, Bianca was rumored to be a witch.

[00:30:19]Ferdinando said, "I don't want Bianca close to [music] the Medici family."

[00:30:26]And Bianca's corpse disappeared.

[00:30:30]A few years before the couple died, Ferdinando also became concerned about Duke Francesco.

[00:30:37]Francesco the [music] first was a very strange man. He should, to some extent, have been a perfect ruler. But it was quite clear that that wasn't his primary interest. His real interest was in what we would now call science, but in those days was much closer associated with magic and alchemy. That is the the [music] transformation of substances.

[00:30:56]And his desire was to find mechanisms to [music] transform base metals into gold.

[00:31:01]He became so obsessed that he would leave early in the morning and lock himself in his room for experiments and not come until uh very, very [music] late at night. His dream was innocent, but it stole time from his duties as head of state. Cardinal Ferdinando felt that the future of the Medici dynasty was, in fact, [music] being compromised and the well-being of the state was being compromised by Francesco's increasing interest in his alchemical experiments.

[00:31:33]Did Ferdinando's fears about his brother give him a motive for murder?

[00:31:41]Ken and Donatella visit the villa where Francesco and Bianca fell fatally ill.

[00:31:48]It happened during a family gathering.

[00:31:51]So, we must imagine the situation, [music] many people, the Grand Duke uh Francesco, his wife, >> [music] >> Bianca, and Cardinal Ferdinando.

[00:32:03]According to eyewitness accounts, something unexpected happened.

[00:32:08]During the lunch, [music] very suddenly, Francesco felt great pains in his stomach.

[00:32:16]And at the same time, Bianca.

[00:32:19]They died so soon after their meal, it suggests poison was involved.

[00:32:24]So, why did the autopsy say malaria?

[00:32:28]Ferdinando took upon [music] himself to have the autopsies performed on the bodies, and he was the one who released the medical reports, and he kept complete control. He became the spin doctor of Francesco's and and Bianca's death.

[00:32:44]But recently, Donatella discovered a second autopsy.

[00:32:48]This one conducted by Francesco's personal physicians.

[00:32:53]The corpses were opened, and the surgeons uh realized that the same kind of poison had spoiled the entrails of Bianca and Francesco.

[00:33:10]This uh record [music] was uh hidden, was concealed because it was too dangerous.

[00:33:17]The second autopsy also states that the internal organs were buried in the church close to the villa.

[00:33:24]Donatella went there hoping to excavate under the floor.

[00:33:29]Church officials allowed her to descend through an existing cavity, but not to enlarge it.

[00:33:35]I'm lucky that >> [music] >> I'm so small because it was very difficult to go in. I had to take [music] out a great amount of masonry, debris, stones, uh bricks, [music] bones.

[00:33:51]I managed to find uh six or seven small frag- [music] fragments of biological substances which revealed themselves to be pieces, fragments [music] of livers.

[00:34:06]Tests revealed a mix of male and female DNA.

[00:34:11]The male sample matched the DNA found in Duke Francesco's bones.

[00:34:16]And the liver contents revealed something else.

[00:34:20]Fragments of entrails of liver belonging to Francesco, we had found the evidence.

[00:34:27]Um arsenic was found.

[00:34:30]So, this was the evidence that Francesco had been poisoned.

[00:34:37]The alchemist and the alleged witch were probably poisoned by Ferdinando.

[00:34:42]But he never faced justice.

[00:34:45]In an act of political alchemy, he transformed himself from a cardinal into a grand duke, usurping his brother's power in Florence.

[00:34:55]Some say that murder victims become ghosts if their deaths are unavenged.

[00:35:02]If that is so, then Francesco and Bianca are with us still.

[00:35:09]And perhaps they whisper, "In the Medici clan, there is no place for dreamers."

[00:35:22]Inside the Uffizi, a locked door leads from the public galleries to a private passageway called the Vasari Corridor. It was built to allow a Medici patriarch to travel to and from his palace without fear of assassination.

[00:35:44]For several centuries, it has been an extension of the museum featuring self-portraits of great artists like Rubens, Bernini, and Chagall.

[00:35:59]Its windows provide a unique view of the Arno River because the corridor is the second story of a bridge.

[00:36:06]The Ponte Vecchio is one of several bridges that span the river.

[00:36:10]Most appear to be very old, but historian Lee Wintzer knows better.

[00:36:17]We're coming upon the Ponte Santa Trinita, arguably the most important bridge in all of Florence, uh architecturally, culturally, uh structurally. And it looks as though it preexists the war, but in fact, in the 1950s, uh local architects rescued the rubble from the bottom of the river and used it to rebuild the bridge almost as it was.

[00:36:40]It needed to be rebuilt because of what happened here in World War II.

[00:36:47]When Allied forces began to push the Nazis out of Italy.

[00:36:51]In August of 1944, when the Germans evacuate begin to evacuate Florence, [music] they need to establish the Arno River as a speed bump so that the Allies can't chase them too quickly into their new Gothic line defenses. They need to hold the Allies here for a short period of time.

[00:37:08]And in order to do that, they're going to blow all of the bridges over the Arno River.

[00:37:14]One after another, the historic bridges were reduced to rubble, except for [music] the Ponte Vecchio.

[00:37:22]Why did the Ponte Vecchio survive?

[00:37:26]That is our museum's secret.

[00:37:32]The story begins in 1938, when Adolf Hitler arrived in Florence with his Italian ally, Benito Mussolini.

[00:37:42]At Hitler's request, they visited the Ponte Vecchio's Vasari Corridor.

[00:37:48]Mussolini was bored, but the Führer fancied himself a connoisseur of color and form.

[00:37:55]He paused to examine several masterpieces before he stopped to wave to the crowds.

[00:38:05]Some Florentines still remember.

[00:38:25]Some believe that 6 years later, when Hitler's army was in retreat, he couldn't bear to see the bridge destroyed.

[00:38:33]They're bombing all the bridges, obviously, because there's eight more bridges to our left and to our right.

[00:38:37]They bomb them all, but wait a second, Hitler sends in a telegram saying, "Don't bomb this [music] bridge here."

[00:38:42]Why?

[00:38:43]Because of all the artwork up above. So, that's the only thing that saves the bridge, and the Germans do not bomb this bridge.

[00:38:52]But was the Ponte Vecchio really saved by Adolf Hitler?

[00:38:57]Local filmmaker Gianmarco D'Agostino doesn't think so.

[00:39:03]Beneath the arches, he recently noticed a plaque commemorating someone named Gerhard Wolf.

[00:39:10]I pass here a lot of times, of course, but uh I never never looked at the plaque. And I think almost nobody do it.

[00:39:19]The plaque thanks Wolf for helping Florence and saving the Ponte Vecchio.

[00:39:25]I became really curious about this story, and uh I started to to research.

[00:39:32]Gianmarco soon discovered that during World War II, Gerhard Wolf was the German consul for Florence.

[00:39:41]While Nazis in other cities looted art, Wolff did something strange.

[00:39:47]Secretly, he helped Florentines transfer the Uffizi's treasures to hiding places outside the city.

[00:39:55]He He tried [music] out to to save the the works of art of Florence.

[00:40:01]And his un-Nazi behavior extended to people as well.

[00:40:05]When local Jews were threatened, Wolff used his position to help them.

[00:40:13]Via de' Bardi numero 20.

[00:40:15]Here, in that building, was the German consulate during the World War II.

[00:40:21]Here, Gerhard Wolff worked during the day.

[00:40:25]He got in contact with a very famous Jew lawyer in Florence, and he started to give him the names of people before they were deported to Auschwitz and other [snorts] concentration camps. [music] He had to act under cover because he was risking [music] his life, of course.

[00:40:48]By the time the Germans began their retreat, Wolff had saved hundreds of lives.

[00:40:56]He also tried to save the city's bridges by pleading with his superiors to stop the demolition.

[00:41:03]Did his pleas save the Ponte Vecchio?

[00:41:07]Lee Windsor has a different theory.

[00:41:10]Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the Ponte Vecchio as venerable, but was totally inadequate for military purposes. You can see that it really is a pedestrianized bridge.

[00:41:20]It's not It's not capable, not suitable for heavy vehicular traffic. You can tell that it's it's strained and old and weak. To put any kind of amount of heavy military traffic onto that bridge is going to knock it down.

[00:41:36]So, the bridge is militarily useless.

[00:41:38]The [music] Germans know it. So, it's the only one they leave intact.

[00:41:42]If the bridge had been sturdier, it might not be here today.

[00:41:46]And neither [music] would the masterpieces of the Vasari Corridor.

[00:41:52]And without a traitorous Nazi named Gerhard Wolff, the museum's collections might now be gone.

[00:41:59]The galleries would no longer whisper that humanity achieves its highest expression during the darkest of times. [music] In this place where intrigue and inspiration meet, for every mystery we reveal, far more must remain unspoken.

[00:42:24]Secrets of the questing mind and the troubled heart, hidden in plain sight inside the Uffizi Gallery.

[00:42:35]>> [music]