The Casa de Campo in Madrid has been widely used by the film industry to shoot both foreign and national productions. It may be surprising to learn that Stanley Kubrick or Orson Welles have filmed in this park. As well as Clint Eastwood with Sergio Leone.

One of the first Western sets built in Spain, dismantled after filming, was erected for the comedy set in the Wild West, "Torrejón City" (1962, León Klimovsky), starring Tony Leblanc. It was built at the Casa de Campo.

Two years later, the Casa de Campo in Madrid began to host western shoots, the first one with people who would later become very famous: Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone. "A Fistfull of Dollars" (1964) is the first western shot in the Toledo Pavilion/Casa de Toledo, in the old Feria del Campo. Afterwards, other horror films were also shot there together with the westerns "Fistful of Knuckles" (1965, Michelle Lupo), "Fury of Johnny Kid" (1967, Gianni Puccini) and "Zorro, Rider of Vengeance" (1971, José Luis Merino). This building is nowadays a well-known restaurant.

Sergio Leone had already filmed "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1959) and "The Colossus of Rhodes" (1961) in Madrid when he planned to tackle his first western and brought an unknown Clint Eastwood from the United States to star in it. At the time neither Ennio Morricone, nor Leone, nor Eastwood were what they would later on become when "A Fistfull of Dollars" (1964) was shot in Hoyo de Manzanares. So that shooting was premonitory, launched their careers, and raised the profile of European westerns until they were actually copied by the American film industry. Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy is the zenith of European westerns and amongst the most renowned western films in the world. One could also say that Clint Eastwood definitely began to forge his style as an actor and as a director, shooting in Madrid.

After filming "A Fistfull of Dollars" (1964), Leone returned to the current Madrid region to film the other two instalments of the Dollar Trilogy: "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966). With their respective production base camps in Madrid, including Eastwood's accommodation in Torre de Madrid.

List of locations of "A Fistfull of Dollars" in the Community of Madrid:

1. Golden City Set. Hoyo de Manzanares. As the town of San Miguel.
2. Golden City Set. Hoyo de Manzanares. Cemetery night scenes.
3. Casa de Campo in Madrid. Casa de Toledo Pavilion. Interior of the Rojo's house.
4. Alberche River. Aldea del Fresno. The massacre of Mexican soldiers by the Ramón Rojo gang on the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo.
5. CEA Studio (Madrid). Construction of additional sets as well as the interiors in Golden City.

List of locations for the filming of "For a Few Dollars More" in the Community of Madrid:

1. Golden City Set. Hoyo de Manzanares. As the small city of Tucumcari in New Mexico.
2. Lega and Michelena village. Western set in Dehesa de Navalvillar. Colmenar Viejo. As the town of White Rocks.

List of locations for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the Community of Madrid

1. Finca Magdalena, "El Rodaje", in La Pedriza (Manzanares El Real): the Rubio kills the three bounty killers who want to catch Tuco.
2. Lega and Michelena village. Western set in Dehesa de Navalvillar. Colmenar Viejo. As the city of Peralta in New Mexico, bombed by the southerners and with the detachments of the northern army on the run.

After the Dollar Trilogy, Sergio Leone returned to Madrid in 1975 to film "A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe" in Nuevo Baztán, turning its Plaza de Fiestas into a US army camp. A film signed by Damiano Damiani, but produced and actually directed by Leone.

The traditional American western actor par excellence, renowned for his work with directors such as John Ford, also set foot in the region of Madrid to film. In this case, Wayne didn't take up arms, as it wasn't a western film as such, but he did wear a cowboy hat, rode and drove a stagecoach, precisely through the pathway of El Retiro park in Madrid.

It was the last mega-production that Samuel Bronston made in Spain, "Circus World", created by another director who also did many American western films, Henry Hathaway. Since the film was about a circus, the main troupe evoked the shows of Buffalo Bill, so The Duke was able to show off his skills in the genre, accompanied in the cast by Rita Hayworth and Claudia Cardinale.

With locations in Madrid such as the exterior of the Porland cement factory in Vicálvaro, the patio of the Royal Palace in Aranjuez, the original Circo Price or the Plaza de Chinchón where a performance of an Indian attack is held, the end of the film with the set over the Retiro pond is also memorable.

For more information on western filming in the Community of Madrid, we recommend reading the volumes "El cine del oeste en la Comunidad de Madrid", "Clint dispara! La trilogía del dólar de Sergio Leone", "John Cabrera. Localizando el Hollywood español", "Un lugar para el cine. Colmenar Viejo y la industria cinematográfica", "La Dehesa de Navalvillar de Colmenar Viejo, plató cinematográfico", "Talamanca de Jarama, plató cinematográfico" "Rocas en el celuloide. Manzanares el Real y la Pedriza como plató cinematográfico", "Madrid y el cine", "El Hollywood español" or "Il viccino west", as well as the catalogue of "Mad About Hollywood".

We also recommend visiting specialized websites, such as "Colmenar Viejo, Tierra de Cine", as well as the virtual augmented reality experience through the APP of the Golden City set in Hoyo de Manzanares.