The Gold of the Conquistadors | phoenix
The Gold of the Conquistadors: A film by Gisela Graichen and Michael Taubert | phoenix
The gold treasure of Troy made Heinrich Schliemann famous. His heirs are now following the lure of the precious metal and embarking on a quest in the ancient cultures of our world.
For the first time, a film crew is retracing the arduous gold route of the first German conquistadors in the New World. The expedition, undertaken by Ambrosius Alfinger almost 500 years ago in search of legendary gold riches, now leads through guerrilla-held territory in Colombia. Who were the German conquistadors whose thirst for fame and fortune drove them to the New World? How close did these adventurers come to their goal, and what became of the treasures? The expedition along the conquistadors' gold route takes the film crew to the excavation site of the city of Panama La Vieja and on a dive to the gold galleons in the Caribbean.
News of legendary gold treasures also reached the ears of the Welser family, who had risen to become the banking house of the Spanish king and later emperor Charles V. The Augsburg bankers financed the Spaniards' extensive gold expeditions. The Welsers, too, dreamed of a small private empire in the New World. Would they have conquered it under the sign of the cross, just as the Spaniards had—or in the name of the new religion of Martin Luther, to which they were more inclined?
Old documents hint at how deeply the German adventurers found themselves embroiled in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Where did Alfinger's gold treasures and those of the other conquistadors go? A Colombian team of underwater archaeologists is diving off Cartagena in search of the gold galleons. Old maps and ship's documents guide them.