The History of Golden City

 

Golden City was the filming location located in the Regional Park of the Guenca Alta del Manzaneres and was the first stable film town of the ‘West’ in Spain and Europe.

In 1962, in the vicinity of Hoyo de Manzanares, the first settlement in the stable West of Spain was built. The initiative corresponded to the screenwriter, director and producer Eduardo Manzanos Brochero who, seeing the potential of European westerns, commissioned designers Jose Luis Galicia and Jaime Perez Guerra (Contractors), the task of building the set.

At that time the land belonged to the municipality of Hoyo de Manzanares, so Eduardo Manzanos made an offer to purchase the land, which was rejected due the amount of bureaucracy and the time it would take to make the purchase and sale, but the producer wanted to role as early as possible so they proposed to the consistory to lease the land. Thus, in 1962 it was rented for 5 years at a rate of 50,000 pesetas, which increased over the years.

The set consisted of a wide street, about 100 meters (330 feet) long, closed on the north end by a long hall. The village had about 15 buildings, to which were added constructed buildings of only facades.

The first film to be shot there was “Due contro tutti” (The Terrible Sheriff) by Alberto de Martino and Antonio Momplet, in 1962. Two years later Sergio Leone would arrive to shoot the emblematic “Por un punado de dolares” (A Fistful of Dollars), a film with which the Spaghetti Western boom would begin. 68 westerns were filmed there, from 1962 to 1973. From 1972 onwards, filming began to be less and less frequent, due to the progressive decline of the genre and the fact that producers preferred to shoot in Almeria. With the decrease in the number of shootings, income also decreased, so that the sets slowly deteriorated, as can be seen, for example, in the western “Un dos tres dispara otra vez” (Tulio Demicheli, 1973), one of the last westerns filmed there. The last film shot in the town is thought to be “Mano rapida” (Quick Hand) but recent discoveries place this honor to the film “La mascara de Cuero” (The Leather Mask) in 1975.*

As a result, Eduardo Manzanos Brochero decided, in 1975, not to renew the contract, leaving a significant debt. The remains of the set were kept for a few years (until the mid-80s or so), to disappear later. You can still see some traces of the town such as a couple of watering troughs and few bricks scattered around the prairie, but the structures have been completely removed.

The town of Golden City was active from 1962-1973, after that period the town was abandoned to its fate, between the inclement weather and the looting of the people of the area for reuse material. The town already in the 1980s only some brick buildings were left standing.

This remained so until 2010/2011 during this period machines were used to remove the remains of Chicago Street (another of the sets) and the few remaining buildings, leaving only for posterity and thanks to the management of the Hoyo Cine association to maintain at least two original water troughs of the town.

*[Editors' note recent discoveries place this honor to the film “La mascara de Cuero” (The Leather Mask) in 1975. 

IMDB lists it as 1971 which is certainly to early

My notes say it started shooting in November 1973, which is closer to the sites closing (don't ask me where I found it 30+ years ago) - Michael Ferguson]