The Good, the Bad an the Ugly

Sad Hill Cemetery, Mission of San Antonio, Battle of Langstone Bridge ...

FOTOLee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach in the final scene in the Sad Hill Cemetery (trielo)

Lee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach in the final scene in the Sad Hill Cemetery (trielo)

After filming A Fistful of Dollar  and For a Few Dollars More in Almería, Spain, Film director Sergio Leone, moved his crew to Burgos in the summer of 1996 to film/shoot The Good the Bad and the Ugly on locations in Covarrubias and Salas de los Infantes. 

A Fantastic Setting

FOTOClint Eastwood en el valle de Contreras a Carazo.

Clint Eastwood en el valle de Contreras a Carazo.

This  tour planned by the Archeological and Paleontological Association of Salas  takes us to the actual film scenes/locations in a chronological order.

Our starting point is Salas de los Infantes, we take the Burgos road N-234 until the town of Hortigüela, from where we continue to Covarrubias. After 3.5 kms on the right side we reach the scene “The Battle in the Langstone Bridge”. Here we are able to recognize a deserted area where the trenches were once installed. On the other side of the Arlanza river we would see the entrance of a small valley that leads to the bridge.

On the road again and 1 km ahead from this point we will be able to see the ruins of San Pedro de Arlanza Monastery, where the interiors of the San Antonio Mission were filmed. On the same road, and  just before crossing the second bridge over the Arlanza, in Fuente Tubilla,  we take the path on the left side heading  to Contreras. On our next  8   kilometres we will find ourselves in a  rich   landscape. Later, after passing the sheep shelter or Tenadas de Valcárcel we reach Contreras. From there we take the path that takes us to Santo Domingo de Silos  that  gets into a small valley ascending to 1,150 mts above sea level. There, a big valley opens with the limy crag “Peña de Villanueva o  Carazo” on the north side, and Los Cuetos  on the south. Just  where this valley begins and after crossing a gate, we will find the scenery of “Sad Hill Cemetery”. Mounds of vegetation occupy now the place of the graves forming concentric circles. From here we may walk around if we have time and cover the  6 kms  that separates this scenery from the other one where  The Betterville Prison-Camp was filmed, in Carazo.

Following Clint Eastwood tracks

The landscape is spectacular at all periods of the year and is the place where "The Blonde" (Clint Eastwood) rides at the end of the film. The propose option by car consists of continuing raising the track from the cemtery scene to crowning to 1,280 meters of altitude and enjoying the views (from this height the concentric circles of vegetation of the cemetery can be observed perfectly). Later we go down the track until arriving at Santo Domingo de Silos, where we took the highway in direction to Salas de los Infantes. After crossing the defile of Mataviejas river, we arrived at Carazo.  About 500 m.s from the northwest of the town and on a hill of 1,200 m of altitude, called Majada de la Merinas, the scene of the "Camping-Prison of Betterville" is located. In this land a rectangular swelling of 125x110 m is observed where the walls and pits were.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 50 YEARS

FOTOSergio Leone during filming in Sad Hill

Sergio Leone during filming in Sad Hill

In 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the filming of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Directed by Sergio Leone, it is considered one of the best westerns of the history of cinema and one of the most popular among the public films.

During the years 2015/2016, on the initiative of Sad Hill Paleontological Archaeological-Cultural Association and Collective Salas (CAS), among others, are to perform various activities (congress, exhibitions, courses, performances) culminating in the enhancement of the Sad Hill Cemetery, one of the most important of the western film sets in Spain.

During two months of hot summer of 1966, the Sierra Demand became part of he United States. This peaceful and temporary annexation was made by Sergio Leone, he found in the Peña de Villanueva and the Valley of the Arlanza the appropriate scenarios to shoot the third installment of his "trilogy of dollars' (" Death had a price "," A Fistful of Dollars "and" The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ").

Both the artistic cast of the film as many technicians were distributed by catering establishments in Salas de los Infantes and Covarrubias, causing the logical stir among neighbors and vacationers. Many youths in the area were recruited as extras in the film.

The four shooting scenarios were located around Salas de los Infantes, Covarrubias and Santo Domingo de Silos ...

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Documentación: ruta-bueno-feo-malo.pdf