BurgosAlmeríaRome1966

Clint Eastwood in a striped poncho and hat brim, squinting, in front of a wooden western set — Clint Eastwood in a publicity photograph for A Fistful of Dollars, 1964. Publicity photograph (studio) · Public domain

Lee Van Cleef in a black hat and brown coat, staring hard at the camera, moustache and narrowed eyes — Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse, 1967, the year after The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. PEC / United Artists (frame from the film) · Public domain

Eli Wallach smiling in a light suit and patterned tie, black and white — Eli Wallach, publicity photograph. Publicity photograph (studio) · Public domain

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Leone’s American West was a valley in Burgos, a river in the Arlanza, a desert in Almería and a studio in Rome. Most of it is still there. Three men, one circle: cut between their eyes to find it.

Clint Eastwood, publicity photograph, 1964 · Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse, 1967 · Eli Wallach, publicity photograph, 1966. Public domain.

The standoff · Sad Hill

Cut between
the eyes.

Leone’s style set close-ups against long wide shots. For the final shoot-out, Leone filmed to Morricone’s music, recorded in advance. Every cut below is shorter than the last; each pair of eyes is looking at a real place.

Three men stand in a circle. Nobody moves.

Press Roll, then keep cutting.

Mirandilla valley, Burgos

Put your name
on a cross.

Volunteers began digging it out again in 2014, for the film’s 50th anniversary, and uncovered the original stone paving. Fans paid for it: sponsoring a grave cost 15 euros.

Nothing leaves this page: the name stays on your screen.

The graves

Wooden crosses in a dry meadow below a pale cliff and blue sky — Restored crosses at Sad Hill, December 2016. TurismoRuralArlanza · CC BY-SA 4.0

About 250 Spanish army soldiers built it in roughly three days, to Carlo Simi’s designs.

Volunteers have put up about 5,000 wooden crosses. Cattle scratching against them break some; visitors take stones as souvenirs.

Guillermo de Oliveira’s 2017 documentary Sad Hill Unearthed brought fans to the valley. In July 2026 the Asociación Cultural Sad Hill marked 60 years since the filming with a dramatised tour of the cemetery and the Alfoz de Lara brass band playing Morricone.

Free and open. Take the narrow half-paved track: about 3 km from Santo Domingo de Silos or 5 km from Contreras. Leave the stones where they are.

Shot notes

Rows of wooden crosses in snow under a dark sky — Sad Hill under snow, December 2017. Batoneila · CC BY-SA 4.0

Asociación Cultural Sad Hill

Dramatised walk: Carazo to Sad Hill

Carazo · Every day by arrangement · €12 a head, groups of 10+

Actors walk you from Carazo to the cemetery and back: about 11 km, three and a half hours.

Ask for a date

The Arlanza, near Hortigüela

Twelve cameras.
One plunger.

A wooden bridge about 100 metres long was built over the river in the Arlanza valley, about 3.5 km from Hortigüela, for a battle between Union and Confederate troops. More than 2,000 extras took part.

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Take 1. The bridge is built: about a hundred metres of timber over the river.

A green field below a long wooded limestone ridge — Countryside south of Hortigüela, May 2019. Ludi Diez · CC BY-SA 4.0

Langstone Bridge site

Manolo Velasco worked as a camera operator under Leone on the bridge sequence.

The bridge was blown up for the film. OpenStreetMap marks the battle trenches beside the BU-905, a kilometre east of the monastery.

Shot notes

Mission San Antonio

One mission,
two provinces.

The ruined interiors of San Pedro de Arlanza played the Mission San Antonio, the convent turned military hospital where Tuco takes Blondie to recover.

A ruined stone chapel with an arched niche, grass growing inside — The ruins of the Ermita de San Pelayo, August 2025. Gesus1960 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The shutters are closed. Something is on the hill outside.

It stands on a rocky cliff above the Arlanza valley, looking over the river and the forest.

A ruined hermitage on the riverside path below the monastery, with views down the Arlanza.

Shot notes

A stone monastery gateway with a sculpted horseman above the door and a fir tree behind — The gateway of San Pedro de Arlanza, 2009. Luis Rogelio HM · CC BY-SA 2.0

Roofless stone walls and arches of a ruined church among trees — The ruined church of San Pedro de Arlanza, 2009. David Perez · CC BY 3.0

Hortigüela, on the BU-905

San Pedro de Arlanza

Sculptures were pushed aside to make room for the wounded. The room where it was filmed, above the refectory, is now a private part of the monastery. The rooms where Blondie recovers and Tuco meets his brother have collapsed.

The monastery was founded in 912 and is called the cradle of Castile. It is now in ruins. Luigi Pistilli plays Tuco’s brother, Padre Ramírez.

Free. July to September, Wednesday to Sunday 10:30–14:30 and 16:00–18:30; October to April, Wednesday to Sunday 10:15–16:45. Closed the second weekend of each month (in October, the first).

Shot notes

Turismo Castilla y León

San Pedro de Arlanza

Hortigüela · Wed–Sun · free

Walk the ruined monastery that played the Mission San Antonio. No guided visits; parts may close for works.

Opening times

Almería

Throw the
poncho back.

Eli Wallach remembered filming in Rome and Almería, six days a week for four months.

Pale eroded rock and scrub under a blue sky — The Tabernas desert, December 2012. Pablo · CC BY 2.0

The Tabernas desert

The production moves south to the Tabernas desert.

Andalusia’s tourist board names The Good, the Bad and the Ugly among the films shot in the Tabernas desert.

A protected natural area north of Almería. Carry water; there is little shade.

Shot notes

A western storefront with painted signs for groceries and boots, agave in front — Fort Bravo, Tabernas, August 2016. Javier Perez Montes · CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort Bravo

Leone builds a western town of his own near Tabernas.

It has a western street, a Mexican quarter with a church and a square, an Indian village and a log fort, with wagon rides and stunt shows twice a day.

A working film set and park outside Tabernas. Check the day’s show times before you set off.

Shot notes

0 of 2 swung back · Sergio Leone built this western town near Tabernas while looking for sets for his westerns. It still stands and is still used for films and adverts.

Andalucía tourist board

Fort Bravo

Tabernas, Almería

The western town Leone built outside Tabernas: a street, a Mexican quarter, a log fort, wagon rides and stunt shows twice a day.

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Carazo, Salas, Hortigüela, Covarrubias

The villages
that were in it.

Every distance below is as the crow flies from the cemetery.

Betterville camp site · 5 km from Sad Hill

Limestone cliffs and a lookout above a wide valley under cloud — The cliffs of Peña de Carazo, 2014. iturde · CC BY 2.0

Majada de las Merinas, a hilltop near Carazo

Betterville camp site

Blondie and Tuco are held in a Union prison camp.

The Betterville prison camp was filmed on a hilltop near Carazo called Majada de las Merinas.

Carlo Simi designed it: a fort with deep moats, a palisade and buildings alongside.

Men from the villages were extras. Domingo Contreras and Fernando de Miguel played in the camp’s brass band.

A hilltop outside Carazo. OpenStreetMap names a path here the Senda de Betterville; walk it in boots.

Shot notes

Hotel Nuevo Arlanza

Covarrubias

A renovated hotel on Plaza de Doña Urraca in Covarrubias, with a restaurant serving Burgos lamb and morcilla; about 14 km from Sad Hill.

Check rooms

Via Tuscolana, Rome

The last shot
was in Rome.

The film was made partly at Cinecittà in Rome and partly on location. It opened in Italy on 15 December 1966 as Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. It cost $1.2 million, more than the first two films together. Eastwood was paid $250,000 and a share of some profits.

Close the slate to end the shoot.

A modern entrance building with CINECITTÀ in large letters on the canopy — The entrance to Cinecittà, July 2011. JRibaX · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sergio Leone in glasses and a straw hat with a cigarette, crew behind him — Sergio Leone on a film set, 1975. Unknown author · Public domain

Ennio Morricone in glasses and a checked jacket, seated, turning to speak — Ennio Morricone in a recording studio with the trumpeter Mauro Maur (undated press photograph). Unknown author · Public domain

A working studio. Cinecittà si Mostra runs exhibitions and guided tours of the lots.

Shot notes

Where it is now

12 places you can visit or see from a track. The bridge is gone, blown up three times for the film; the Cortijo del Fraile is a protected ruin to see from outside. Nothing here is a private home.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free and open. Take the narrow half-paved track: about 3 km from Santo Domingo de Silos or 5 km from Contreras. Leave the stones where they are.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The bridge was blown up for the film. OpenStreetMap marks the battle trenches beside the BU-905, a kilometre east of the monastery.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free. July to September, Wednesday to Sunday 10:30–14:30 and 16:00–18:30; October to April, Wednesday to Sunday 10:15–16:45. Closed the second weekend of each month (in October, the first).
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A ruined hermitage on the riverside path below the monastery, with views down the Arlanza.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The village nearest the bridge and the monastery: a sensible place to start the Arlanza sites.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A walled medieval village on the Arlanza, about 14 km from Sad Hill, with hotels and restaurants.

Sad Hill Cemetery, February 2019. santiago lopez-pastor from España · CC BY-SA 2.0
Mirandilla valley, between Contreras and Santo Domingo de Silos
Sad Hill Cemetery
The cemetery of the final three-way standoff was built in the Mirandilla valley, between Contreras and Santo Domingo de Silos, and can still be seen.
Free and open. Take the narrow half-paved track: about 3 km from Santo Domingo de Silos or 5 km from Contreras. Leave the stones where they are.
Shot notes
Countryside south of Hortigüela, May 2019. Ludi Diez · CC BY-SA 4.0
Arlanza valley, about 3.5 km from Hortigüela
Langstone Bridge site
A wooden bridge about 100 metres long was built over the river in the Arlanza valley, about 3.5 km from Hortigüela, for a battle between Union and Confederate troops.
The bridge was blown up for the film. OpenStreetMap marks the battle trenches beside the BU-905, a kilometre east of the monastery.
Shot notes
The gateway of San Pedro de Arlanza, 2009. Luis Rogelio HM · CC BY-SA 2.0
Hortigüela, on the BU-905
San Pedro de Arlanza
The ruined interiors of San Pedro de Arlanza played the Mission San Antonio, the convent turned military hospital where Tuco takes Blondie to recover.
Free. July to September, Wednesday to Sunday 10:30–14:30 and 16:00–18:30; October to April, Wednesday to Sunday 10:15–16:45. Closed the second weekend of each month (in October, the first).
Shot notes
The ruins of the Ermita de San Pelayo, August 2025. Gesus1960 · CC BY-SA 4.0
On the cliff above San Pedro de Arlanza
Ermita de San Pelayo
Through a window in the mission scene you can glimpse the hermitage of San Pelayo on its hill near the monastery.
A ruined hermitage on the riverside path below the monastery, with views down the Arlanza.
Shot notes
Sheep on the edge of Hortigüela, May 2019. Rodelar · CC BY-SA 4.0
Plaza de la Constitución, Hortigüela
Hortigüela
The bridge site is about 3.5 km from Hortigüela, and the monastery is in its municipality.
The village nearest the bridge and the monastery: a sensible place to start the Arlanza sites.
Shot notes
Covarrubias and its bridge over the Arlanza, from the air, 2021. TurismoRuralArlanza · CC BY-SA 4.0
Collegiate church of San Cosme y San Damián
Covarrubias
The Carlo Simi Cultural Association is setting up a Carlo Simi–Sad Hill museum in the centre of Covarrubias, a medieval village of about 500 people about 14 km from Sad Hill.
A walled medieval village on the Arlanza, about 14 km from Sad Hill, with hotels and restaurants.
Shot notes

Stay

Sleep by the river.

A hotel in Covarrubias, the village closest to the museum and a short drive from Sad Hill.

Hotel Nuevo Arlanza

Covarrubias

A renovated hotel on Plaza de Doña Urraca in Covarrubias, with a restaurant serving Burgos lamb and morcilla; about 14 km from Sad Hill.

Check rooms

Go there