About a kilometer north of the Callejones bridge and five
kilometers from Tabernas, a few hundred meters from the road from Almeria to
Murcia, it was built as the city El Paso in "For a Few Dollars More"
(1965), a large set was built based on a design by the architect Carlo Simi and
the supervision of the scenographer Carlo Leva. He works, on the ground of
cortijo Gennaro, in a very panoramic position, begin at the end of May 1965.
The project contained many large buildings of wood, cement and brick. It was
also suitable for interior shots: the bank on the western side of the square
and, on the opposite side, the sheriff's office and jail with the
characteristic facade culminating in three semicircles; the saloon-hotel where
Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) stayed on the north side and the hotel in which Clint
Eastwood stayed is on the south side (with Mount Alfaro in the background). The
great set was then used in many films until the 1970s; but, with the decay of
the western genre, it risked going completely into ruin. At the beginning of
the 1980s this complex was restructured to make it a theme park called Mini
Hollywood; a western village as a tourist attraction, in which stuntmen
recreate scenes and situations characteristic of that type of cinema (duels,
chases, shootouts and fights) every day, and in an adjacent area a large zoo
with exotic animals was also created. The complex is today called the Paras
Tematico Oasys.
This great set, therefore, was connected to the tourist
development on the coast of Almeria which was beginning in the 1980s. An
operation which, combined economic, cultural, and cinematographic interests
that were used for filming helped to preserve a set that would otherwise have disappeared,
like many others. Among the westerns shot on this set include:
“$100,000 for Lassiter” (1965); “The Relentless Four”
(1965); “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966); “A Woman for Ringo” (1966); “Navajo
Joe” (1966) (in which it represents Esperanza City; this set was combined with
the western village of De Laurenti south of Rome); “A Taste for Killing” (1966)
(representing Omaha City; the wooden bridge was also used); “Sugar Colt” (1966)
(representing the town of Snake Valley); “Dynamite Joe” (1967); “For a Few
Bullets More” (1968); “Ace High” (1968); “Fifteen Scaffolds for a Killer”
(1968); “I Came, I Saw, I Shot” (1968); “Sledge” (1970); “Doc” (1971); “Hannie
Caulder” (1971); “The Ballad of Ben and Charlie” (1972); “Sonny & Jed”
(1972); “Massacre at Fort Holman” (1972); “The Spike’s Gang” (1973); “The Man
Called Noon” (1973); “Shanghai Joe” (1973); “The White, the Yellow, the Black”
(1974); “The Stranger and the Gunfighter” (1974); “Whiskey and Fantasy” (1974);
“Spaghetti Western” (1975) (in this film it appears as a city of an oil field;
you can also see the bridge); “California” (1977) (ued as a ghost town); “Buddy
Goes West” (1981) (represents Yucca City); “Al este del Oeste” (1984); La luz
de la primera Estrella (2004).
“For a Few Dollars More” - 1965
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” – 1966
“Navajo Joe” - 1966
“Sugar Colt” - 1966
“A Taste for Killing” - 1966
“Doc” - 1971
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