The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Almería and Burgos Locations

Almería played the deserts of New Mexico, and Tabernas is where Leone's western towns rose from the dust. Mini Hollywood was designed by Carlo Simi for an earlier Leone western and reused for this film. When shooting ended, the extras bought the set and turned it into a tourist attraction. Today it runs as the Oasys theme park, with daily cowboy stunt shows among its mock western stores.

Visitor guidance: Open as the Oasys MiniHollywood theme park beside the N-340 near Tabernas.

Tuco's priest brother rejects him at a Franciscan monastery, and that scene was shot at a small 19th-century building in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park called Cortijo del Fraile. The cortijo is now in ruinous condition and appears on Spain's red list of endangered heritage.

The film moves north to Burgos, which stands in for the American Southwest. Other mission scenes were shot at San Pedro de Arlanza, a ruined Benedictine monastery in the Arlanza valley, founded in 912 and nicknamed the cradle of Castile. In the story, Tuco and Blondie pose as Confederate soldiers at a mission while Blondie recovers from the desert march.

Union cavalry capture the two men, and Tuco is tortured until he gives up the name of the cemetery. The Betterville prison camp was built near Carazo, in Burgos, for the film.

Location precision: Sources say the camp was built near Carazo but give no exact spot; the pin marks the village.

Tuco and Blondie watch two armies fight over a strategic bridge and blow it up to clear their path. The 180-metre Langstone bridge was built by the Spanish army on the Arlanza river near Covarrubias. The first take went wrong when the explosion destroyed all three cameras, so the army rebuilt the bridge and the scene was filmed again.

Location precision: Sources place the battle on the Arlanza near Covarrubias without naming the exact bend, so this stop is not pinned.

Tuco, Blondie and Angel Eyes meet in a circular cemetery for the final Mexican stand-off. Blondie says the gold is in the grave marked Unknown. Several hundred Spanish soldiers built the set, with thousands of crosses, to resemble a Roman circus. It lay abandoned for 49 years until volunteers began restoring it in October 2015, a story told in the documentary Sad Hill Unearthed.

Visitor guidance: Reached by a gravel track from Contreras, about 3 km; it suits SUVs and off-road vehicles better than ordinary cars.