11-04-2007, 11:31 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Nov 4 2007, 01:08 AM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Nov 4 2007, 01:08 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Raj, I recall an old Biggles book about U-Boats in a disused volcanic island with underwater approach. Don't recall the title now. Its so long ago <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
[right][snapback]74877[/snapback][/right]
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ramana, this is the story and it is believed that the island hideout was a midway point for German officers headed out to bases far south, viz SA, Antartic. It is located in Island Fuerteventura which is part of the Canary Islands. To find the Villa Winter in Google Earth, one must note that the location tag of it is located in a totally wrong place. To find the place search for "Cofete" in Googleearth, or just try "Fuerteventura" and scroll down the southwestern coast of it.
<img src='http://www.fuerteventura.uk.com/villawinter.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Called Villa Gustav Winter, it lies hidden from the world nestling between the mountains and the wild Atlantic Ocean on Fuerteventura.
It can only be reached after a hair raising drive along a dirt track in the mountain borders. The sheer isolation of Villa Gustav Winter holds a mystery which has yet to be explained.
This mystery begins with the appearance and position of Villa Gustav Winter itself. It is surrounded by land which eerily has exactly the same shape and proportions of the island of Fuerteventura itself...
And the villa's location within this enclosed replica corresponds geographically to its true position on the island ⦠a mirror of a mirror!
Was this location and shape the result of exact mathematical positioning, a signal to some alien life form or just sheer fluke? The truth will probably never come to light but theories abound.
German-born Gustav Winter arrived on Fuerteventura in the 1930s. He worked for a large company that had just acquired a great expanse of land in the south of the island â the peninsula of Jandia.
Winter became known for his mysterious dark glasses and accompanying black dog and was responsible for building the first port at Morro Jable.
However, it is not for these reasons that he is best remembered. His name will always be connected to the small isolated hamlet of Cofete where he built Villa Gustav Winter - a villa that later gave birth to countless myths.
Originally, the villa was said to have been built to establish agriculture in the region. It was modeled on a villa built in the Black Forest in 1893.
But rumors began spreading after the appearance of armed guards accompanied by large dogs started guarding the walls of what was becoming more of a fortress than a villa.
Anyone trying to get to Villa Gustav Winter had to first identify themselves to the guards who would then call Winter himself. If they were granted permission to enter, they then had to travel along a dirt track road which, according to
urban legend, was built by political prisoners held captive at a concentration camp at Tefia. An airport runway was also built there and put at Gustavâs disposal. Rumors were flamed after accounts from people allowed into the villa described the five rooms in the attic as being completely tiled, of a large kitchen and of vast dark cellars and caves stretching under the villa and into the mountainside. Were the tiles to stop any radio signals being picked up by eavesdroppers?
And why would such an important engineer as Gustav, who held the rank of Colonel and who was at the forefront of an important shipyard in Bordeaux, hide himself in the middle of nowhere to practice farming while his country was at war?
He was a man of considerable importance â at a time when his country needed him most, would he really hide himself away in a fortress in a remote island with its close proximity to the sea and an airport runway? Would he really shelter in a fortress built of solid walls with ample cellars and a kitchen large enough to feed a small army?
Allied ships were frequently attacked by German submarines that surrounded and protected this small island from prying eyes.
Historical accounts now tend to suggest that Villa Gustav Winter acted as a safe house for top escaping Nazis most probably heading to America.
Its isolated location next to the Atlantic and its natural mountain shelter would have been an ideal rendezvous point for Nazi leaders arriving by submarine and seeking a safe haven until they could slip into anonymity after the war.
Another myth that has grown is that Vila Gustav Winter was a halfway house not only providing safe haven but also a hospital where plastic surgeons operated to give their overlords new faces to match their new identities.
In an interview shortly before her death, the widow of Gustav Winter firmly denied the allegations leveled at her late husband over the years.
She denied that the villa had ever had connections to the Nazis or that it was built as a hideaway for Adolf Hitler â she said the infamous villa was built for the simple reason of exploiting agriculture in the area.
So was Villa Gustav Winter meant to be the last bolt hole for Adolf Hitler?
Whatever the answer, the sheer size of Villa Winter, its isolation and the constant guard patrols would tend to suggest that this was never destined to be a family home ringing with the sound of laughter from happy children.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Also quoting Wikipedia: <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Famous landmarks includes the Villa Winter, not far from Cofete which sits on a mountain slope with a small tower on the left. The villa was first built shortly after the end of the Second World War in 1946. Today, the villa also serves as a restaurant and a hotel."
"Although it is said that the villa was renovated in 1985 and that the mysterious villa was probably built as a restaurant or a hotel it remains in the same state that it has for decades. The fact that it is built on the remotest part of the island with only a dust track leading to it and that the journey from the nearest towm Morro del jable takes about an hour in a four wheel drive vehicle, in reality negates this particular part of the story. The fact that all of the expansive roof space has been constructed with cell like accommodation in the eaves, allowing sleeping space for one or two persons per cell, indicates that it either housed many servants or more likely many troops. The perimeter area still shows signs of barbed wire protection and control points and the downstairs white tiled room spaces are reminicsent of hospital operating theaters. There is clear indication that below the currently lowest accessible levels that there are lower levels still. A small gauge rail track runs from near the house into the mountainside and a mining skip which ran on these rails can clearly be seen outside of the main building. A cemetery exists on the beach several hundred meters from the house. Locals tell us the Winter insisted that all burials from the town of Morro Jable, (more than a full days gruelling hike away) took place there. Recent interest in the cemetery have caused it to be walled off, but by whom I do not know The villa has given rise to many local myths and legends. It sits in grounds that are exactly the same shape and, proportionally, the same size as the island and its position within those grounds match exactly its real position on the island. A freak chance or a complex mathematical calculation by Winter?
Local legends include it being used as a base station for contacting aliens! <b>But probably the most likely explanation for its isolated position and its santitised, hospital-like interior is that it was intended as a last bolt hole for Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis, a refuge to where they could escape and possibly undergo plastic surgery before being shipped to a new life with a new identity in the North or South Americas</b>."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
More translated from spanish:
<i>"desde que supe de la existencia de esta casa y me entere de las "leyendas" que existiena a su alrededor, estuve interesado en visitarla. esta semana he estado en fuerteventura (soy de tenerife)y aproveche la ocasion para visitarla, pude habla con un señor mayor que estaba en la zona, me conto que habia trabajado haciendo la cimentacion de la casa, que fue sobre el año 44 aprox. y que la casa tenia varios sotanos, algunos con paredes que sobrepasaban los 1500 cms de espesor, soy arquitecto tecnico, y se que solo un bunker requeriria tales espesores de hormigón."</i>
<i><b>Translation</b>: since the moment I knew of the house and got to know the "legends" which exist about it, I was interested in visiting it. This week I was in Fuerteventura (I am from Tenerife) and I used the chance to visit it, could talk with an elder man who was in the place, and he told me he had worked building the basement of the house, around the year 1944 aprox. and that the house had several cellars; <b>some of them with walls with a thickness of more than 1500 cms; I am architect and I know that only a bunker would require such thickness...</b></i>
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->.[right][snapback]74877[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ramana, this is the story and it is believed that the island hideout was a midway point for German officers headed out to bases far south, viz SA, Antartic. It is located in Island Fuerteventura which is part of the Canary Islands. To find the Villa Winter in Google Earth, one must note that the location tag of it is located in a totally wrong place. To find the place search for "Cofete" in Googleearth, or just try "Fuerteventura" and scroll down the southwestern coast of it.
<img src='http://www.fuerteventura.uk.com/villawinter.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Called Villa Gustav Winter, it lies hidden from the world nestling between the mountains and the wild Atlantic Ocean on Fuerteventura.
It can only be reached after a hair raising drive along a dirt track in the mountain borders. The sheer isolation of Villa Gustav Winter holds a mystery which has yet to be explained.
This mystery begins with the appearance and position of Villa Gustav Winter itself. It is surrounded by land which eerily has exactly the same shape and proportions of the island of Fuerteventura itself...
And the villa's location within this enclosed replica corresponds geographically to its true position on the island ⦠a mirror of a mirror!
Was this location and shape the result of exact mathematical positioning, a signal to some alien life form or just sheer fluke? The truth will probably never come to light but theories abound.
German-born Gustav Winter arrived on Fuerteventura in the 1930s. He worked for a large company that had just acquired a great expanse of land in the south of the island â the peninsula of Jandia.
Winter became known for his mysterious dark glasses and accompanying black dog and was responsible for building the first port at Morro Jable.
However, it is not for these reasons that he is best remembered. His name will always be connected to the small isolated hamlet of Cofete where he built Villa Gustav Winter - a villa that later gave birth to countless myths.
Originally, the villa was said to have been built to establish agriculture in the region. It was modeled on a villa built in the Black Forest in 1893.
But rumors began spreading after the appearance of armed guards accompanied by large dogs started guarding the walls of what was becoming more of a fortress than a villa.
Anyone trying to get to Villa Gustav Winter had to first identify themselves to the guards who would then call Winter himself. If they were granted permission to enter, they then had to travel along a dirt track road which, according to
urban legend, was built by political prisoners held captive at a concentration camp at Tefia. An airport runway was also built there and put at Gustavâs disposal. Rumors were flamed after accounts from people allowed into the villa described the five rooms in the attic as being completely tiled, of a large kitchen and of vast dark cellars and caves stretching under the villa and into the mountainside. Were the tiles to stop any radio signals being picked up by eavesdroppers?
And why would such an important engineer as Gustav, who held the rank of Colonel and who was at the forefront of an important shipyard in Bordeaux, hide himself in the middle of nowhere to practice farming while his country was at war?
He was a man of considerable importance â at a time when his country needed him most, would he really hide himself away in a fortress in a remote island with its close proximity to the sea and an airport runway? Would he really shelter in a fortress built of solid walls with ample cellars and a kitchen large enough to feed a small army?
Allied ships were frequently attacked by German submarines that surrounded and protected this small island from prying eyes.
Historical accounts now tend to suggest that Villa Gustav Winter acted as a safe house for top escaping Nazis most probably heading to America.
Its isolated location next to the Atlantic and its natural mountain shelter would have been an ideal rendezvous point for Nazi leaders arriving by submarine and seeking a safe haven until they could slip into anonymity after the war.
Another myth that has grown is that Vila Gustav Winter was a halfway house not only providing safe haven but also a hospital where plastic surgeons operated to give their overlords new faces to match their new identities.
In an interview shortly before her death, the widow of Gustav Winter firmly denied the allegations leveled at her late husband over the years.
She denied that the villa had ever had connections to the Nazis or that it was built as a hideaway for Adolf Hitler â she said the infamous villa was built for the simple reason of exploiting agriculture in the area.
So was Villa Gustav Winter meant to be the last bolt hole for Adolf Hitler?
Whatever the answer, the sheer size of Villa Winter, its isolation and the constant guard patrols would tend to suggest that this was never destined to be a family home ringing with the sound of laughter from happy children.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Also quoting Wikipedia: <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Famous landmarks includes the Villa Winter, not far from Cofete which sits on a mountain slope with a small tower on the left. The villa was first built shortly after the end of the Second World War in 1946. Today, the villa also serves as a restaurant and a hotel."
"Although it is said that the villa was renovated in 1985 and that the mysterious villa was probably built as a restaurant or a hotel it remains in the same state that it has for decades. The fact that it is built on the remotest part of the island with only a dust track leading to it and that the journey from the nearest towm Morro del jable takes about an hour in a four wheel drive vehicle, in reality negates this particular part of the story. The fact that all of the expansive roof space has been constructed with cell like accommodation in the eaves, allowing sleeping space for one or two persons per cell, indicates that it either housed many servants or more likely many troops. The perimeter area still shows signs of barbed wire protection and control points and the downstairs white tiled room spaces are reminicsent of hospital operating theaters. There is clear indication that below the currently lowest accessible levels that there are lower levels still. A small gauge rail track runs from near the house into the mountainside and a mining skip which ran on these rails can clearly be seen outside of the main building. A cemetery exists on the beach several hundred meters from the house. Locals tell us the Winter insisted that all burials from the town of Morro Jable, (more than a full days gruelling hike away) took place there. Recent interest in the cemetery have caused it to be walled off, but by whom I do not know The villa has given rise to many local myths and legends. It sits in grounds that are exactly the same shape and, proportionally, the same size as the island and its position within those grounds match exactly its real position on the island. A freak chance or a complex mathematical calculation by Winter?
Local legends include it being used as a base station for contacting aliens! <b>But probably the most likely explanation for its isolated position and its santitised, hospital-like interior is that it was intended as a last bolt hole for Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis, a refuge to where they could escape and possibly undergo plastic surgery before being shipped to a new life with a new identity in the North or South Americas</b>."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
More translated from spanish:
<i>"desde que supe de la existencia de esta casa y me entere de las "leyendas" que existiena a su alrededor, estuve interesado en visitarla. esta semana he estado en fuerteventura (soy de tenerife)y aproveche la ocasion para visitarla, pude habla con un señor mayor que estaba en la zona, me conto que habia trabajado haciendo la cimentacion de la casa, que fue sobre el año 44 aprox. y que la casa tenia varios sotanos, algunos con paredes que sobrepasaban los 1500 cms de espesor, soy arquitecto tecnico, y se que solo un bunker requeriria tales espesores de hormigón."</i>
<i><b>Translation</b>: since the moment I knew of the house and got to know the "legends" which exist about it, I was interested in visiting it. This week I was in Fuerteventura (I am from Tenerife) and I used the chance to visit it, could talk with an elder man who was in the place, and he told me he had worked building the basement of the house, around the year 1944 aprox. and that the house had several cellars; <b>some of them with walls with a thickness of more than 1500 cms; I am architect and I know that only a bunker would require such thickness...</b></i>