The cemetery from the film 'The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly' receives 50,000 visitors a year after being restored by a group of
neighbors after decades of abandonment
El Periodico de Espana
By Roberto Becares
October 24, 2024
To get to the Sad Hill Cemetery since Santo Domingo de
Silos (Burgos), one has to be guided by instinct, as in the Wild West movies,
or ask a resident of the region. "Go straight on, and turn left on the
dirt road; go slowly, there are a lot of potholes," says a countryman at
the exit of the village. The car carefully avoids the potholes of a forest
track that leads up the mountain towards Contreras. The road is escorted on
both sides by hundreds of the junipers burned in the fateful fire of 2022. They
have an almost black greyish colour, which gives a certain gloomy touch to the
place, almost ghostly.
[Sergio García, founder of the Sad Hill Cultural
Association, poses in front of the cemetery in the film 'The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly', by Sergio Leone, in Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos) / Wim A.H.
Goossens (producer-bulletproof Cupid-Belgium)]
That is why when one heads down to the Mirandilla valley,
presided over by the imposing Peña Carazo, which shows its different layers
naked and observes in the distance the concentric circles of one of the most
famous cemeteries in Hollywood, it is easy to move directly to the film that
Sergio Leone filmed in 1966 here, one of the most acclaimed westerns in
history, 'The good, the bad and the ugly'.
The iconic image of Clint Eastwood in the cemetery
"This site is something unique," explains
Sergio García, a founding member of the Sad Hill Cultural Association, who more
than a decade ago, when the 50th anniversary of the film was approaching,
decided together with the other colleagues of the collective to rescue the
place, which had been abandoned for decades. "One of the most iconic
images of the western is that of Clint Eastwood in the cemetery and it has
always been thought that it was of a film shot in Almería, but no, it was filmed
here. We wanted to highlight that."
[Clint Eastwood, in the Sad Hill cemetery, in Burgos, in
a scene from 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', by Sergio Leone. / EPE]
It was not an easy job. "Of the 5,000 graves that
were there, none were left; it was good wood to make a fire, and this
cobblestone in the central part had about a span of earth on top of it and many
stones had been carried away. The space was unrecognizable," recalls
García about the central cobbled square about 30 meters in diameter where the
duel between the three protagonists (Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van
Cleef) takes place in the film and with which the Italian director wanted to
emulate the Roman coliseums.
To carry
out the project, the association prepared an extensive dossier, of 100 pages,
because it was necessary to argue well before the Junta de Castilla y León how
and why this place could become a milestone of the so-called screen tourism, a
form of cultural tourism in which places where emblematic films or series have
been recorded become poles of tourist attraction.
Sponsoring graves
"The hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, for
example, lived a before and after appearing in Game of Thrones [it went from
receiving 100,000 visitors to 700,000 after appearing in the mythical HBO
series]," reasons García as we take a walk through the tombs, which were
once sponsored by citizens from all over the world paying 15 euros [The group
Metallica, that in his concerts Always start with a song that appears in
Leone's feature film, “The Ecstasy of Gold”.
After filming 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'Death Had a
Price' in the deserts of Almeria, Leone moved to the Arlanza Valley of Burgos
to record 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', a place where he was going to
recreate New Mexico after being advised by the Spanish production director José
Antonio Pérez Giner. The set was built according to the designs of set designer
Carlo Simi in just three days by 250 soldiers of the Spanish army, but the
recovery of the space was a work that lasted almost two years, and in which the
group was helped by the forestry crews, who cleared the corridors between
graves where the undergrowth had made its way.
[A tourist walks through the central circle of the Sad
Hill cemetery, in Burgos, where the last scene of the film 'The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly' was filmed. / EPE]
Despite being an autumn Tuesday at noon, every so often a
car arrives with tourists from different parts of Spain. "It's funny how
well preserved it is. What surprises me the most is that the two times I have
come there are always people," admits Joaquín, a native of Castellón and
who is sightseeing with his son in Castile. The truth is that it is surprising
to see this flow of visitors since the place is in an inhospitable place,
enclosed between mountains, and to get there there are hardly any signs with directions.
The track is sandy except for two small concrete sections.
According to the association, around 50,000 people visit
the cemetery every year, to which another milestone of Leone's film has
recently been added just five kilometers away: the reconstruction of the
mythical Betterville concentration camp, whose recreation has been carried out
by the management of the Sabinares de Arlanza-La Yecla Natural Park. which
managed to get the Junta de Castilla y León to finance the work with a public
tender. The company that carried out the work, Eurofor, worked with the advice
of the association.
[Image of the entrance to the Bettersville prison, which
has also been rebuilt very close to Carazo, in Burgos. / EPE]
The Junta is building two car parks in the face of
success
"We had a peak of visitors when the documentary in
2018 of how the film was made [entitled 'Unearthing Sad Hill]," recalls
García, who comments that there are summer days when up to 50 cars can be
gathered at a time in the main car park. Hence, workers hired by the Junta are
these weeks carrying out works to build two car parks, one at the viewpoint and
the other below.
[An advertisement for Sad Hill beer in front of the
Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. / EPE]
Strangely, the country from which most visitors come is
France. Neither from the United States, the birthplace of the western, nor from
Italy, the country where Leone was from. "It is curious to see how a lot
of French is heard among visitors; they are very respectful of the work of
Leone and Clint Eastwood," says Sergio, who points out that there is some
fear of "dying of success", something that fortunately does not
happen for now, since the place is in full swing Sabinares Arlanza-La Yecla
Natural Park.
In 2026 the 60th anniversary of the film will be
celebrated and the spokesperson for the group assures that "something big
will have to be done", although the region has already become a film route
in its own right, which helps to fix population in an increasingly uninhabited
area of empty Spain. "Carazo, for example, which is here next door, has no
inhabitants under 50 years of age. What will be their future? If rural house
businesses were set up, it would be good," says Sergio, who reports that
there are still residents of the area who participated in the filming.
"There is an extra who came out playing the harmonica who lives in a town
very close."
[Several graves in the Sad Hill cemetery in Burgos, which
is visited by about 50,000 people a year. / EPE]
A beer from Sad Hill Cemetery
In Santo Domingo de Silos, where the Benedictine
monastery is located whose monks achieved world fame with Gregorian chant in
the 90s, there are also nods to the nearby cemetery. Several silhouettes of
Clint Eastwood are scattered around town to announce the Sad Hill beer, that a
producer from Arande de Duero makes. " The truth is that since the
cemetery has been there has been a before and after. They sell little
things," says Vicente, owner of one of the town's shops where you can buy
everything from T-shirts with references to the film such as glasses, beers or
even a special wine that is made in Lerma.
"90% of the people who come to see the monks [they
say the sung Mass in Latin six times a day] ends up going to the
cemetery", says the merchant. "There is a constant flow of cars to
the cemetery," confirms Juan Carlos, who runs a hotel, a hostel and
several tourist accommodations in the town with his mother that in total can
accommodate 235 people. Some days in August have been full. "About 10% of
those who come to see the cemetery then stay here to sleep here and have
breakfast. It is something that they are promoting and that is increasing. And
the prison, which has been opened recently, is still unknown. When it is
known...", he predicts about a paradoxical tourist initiative, since,
despite being a cemetery, the town of Sad Hill has given it its life.
The entire route of the 'Good, the Bad and the Ugly',
which includes the prison of Beterville and the monastery of San Pedro de
Arlanza, which was the setting chosen to host the Mission of San Antonio, have
attracted the attention of the prestigious British newspaper 'The Guardian',
which dedicated an extensive report to him a month ago. "Sad Hill has
positioned itself strongly on the tourist map, but it remains out of the
commercial circuit. It's something created by fans for fans... Its success is
good news for an area of emptied Spain stalked by depopulation".
[Perspective of the Mirandilla Valley, in Burgos, with
the Sad Hill cemetery in the background, the setting for Sergio Leone's film
'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'. / EPE]
