Published on Jul, 2024
If you are a fan of the Spaghetti Westerns, this is the place you have to go to. Quite honestly, many of the negative reviews are off here. You actually do receive entrance information about the history of the place and its development, but it is in Spanish. Similarly, most people speak Spanish here, not English, which is understandable since you're in Spain.
Out of all the places, this is the one the preserved most of the sets used for countless number of movies. Leone himself designed the town for his own films, which lends the entire town a cinematographic air about it. You can't shoot a picture of it without it looking amazing. Also, the visual aspects of the sets keep opening themselves up since often one building was used for difference facades such as the front serving as a bank and the back of it serving as a store. Hence, the place keeps changing its visual nature depending on where you are standing in relationship to it. There is an "old Mexico" section of the town, which is equally engaging. Accompanying your entry is a free pass for a ride with a horse-drawn carriage, which is good in giving you a sense of the scope of the park. The park itself might not be large. But the endless reconfigurations it offers depending on where you stand in it can be endlessly mesmerizing. Afterall, you are standing on part of the set of the beginning of *The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly*, which, for a true fan, is somewhat an unbelievable experience. It is also amazing the way in which the wind whips up the dust in the town that emulates exactly what you have seen in many Spaghetti Westerns without the need of hurricane fans' assistance.
The set really gives you a sense of the visually beautiful nature of the Spaghetti Westerns and how important the scenery was in addition to the acting, the music, wardrobe, and the like. If you are a fan of Spaghetti Westerns, THIS IS THE PARK YOU NEED TO PRIORITIZE.
The park also offers a couple of shows: a moderately done can-can. A Western show inside the saloon about stolen money and stolen horses, which includes someone from the audience. Yes, it is is Spanish. So English-only speakers might be left in the dust here. But it is not like the plot is all the complicated. And, like Mini Hollywood, it also offers an outdoor espectaculo gunfight. Although it doesn't have the same production quality as Mini Hollywood, there is something mesmerizing about watching the re-enactment in the streets where you have watched so many Westerns . I couldn't help but crouch down and try to start shooting like Leone himself just to capture a taste of what it might have been like.