The Western film genre was one of the most prolific in the film industry; so much so that more than 500 films were shot in Europe and, of these, more than 200 in the Madrid Region, even more than the number of Westerns shot in other parts of Spain. The first, in 1941, "Oro vil", by Eduardo García Maroto, and the most recent, in 2016, "Stop Over in Hell" ("Parada en el infierno"), by Víctor Matellano.
Noteworthy films among the more than 200 westerns filmed in the Region include "The Return of the Magnificent Seven” (1966, Burt Kennedy), "Red Sun" (1971, Terence Young) or the so-called "Dollar Trilogy", the latter directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, consisting of "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
The English-speaking films shot in Madrid, coupled with the birth and rise of European-produced Westerns (popularly known as "Spaghetti Westerns"), fuelled the development a unique economic activity in the Region of Madrid, materializing in structures such as the first Western town in Europe, in Colmenar Viejo, or the first permanent Western town in Europe, in Hoyo de Manzanares. In fact, Hoyo de Manzanares was precisely the location where Sergio Leone filmed practically all of "A Fistful of Dollars", launching the Euro-Western phenomenon.
Westerns were filmed in the Madrid Region by great Hollywood directors such as Robert Siodmak, Raoul Walsh or Richard Fleischer, and actors and actresses like Claudia Cardinale, Robert Mitchum, Terence Hill, Gina Lollobrigida and Lee Marvin. Actors like William Shatner or Burt Reynolds virtually made their debuts in film in the region, John Wayne led a stagecoach in Madrid's Parque de El Retiro, and Clint Eastwood became the fastest gunslinger on screen ...
The publication mentions 36 municipalities in the Madrid Region where Westerns have been filmed and four key routes that include film locations, in municipalities such as Talamanca de Jarama ("Dollar for the Dead"), Daganzo ("A Town Called Hell"), Nuevo Baztán ("A Genius, Two Partners and A Dupe"), Alcalá de Henares ("Compañeros"), Rivas Vaciamadrid ("Cannon For Cordoba"), Aldea del Fresno ("General Custer's Last Adventure") or the Casa de Campo park in Madrid ("A Fistful of Dollars").
The guide also includes specific information on the presence of Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone in the Region, as well as John Wayne, the quintessential American star of the classic Western genre
