Conan the Barbarian: Filming the Hyborian Age

The film opens in the Hyborian Age, in a Cimmerian village where Conan's father forges a sword and teaches him the Riddle of Steel. Then Thulsa Doom's raiders fall on the village, burn it and kill Conan's parents. The production built the village in the pine forest near Valsaín, south of Segovia, and scattered marble shavings to fake snow. On 23 February 1981 the shoot was interrupted by the Civil Guard during the 23-F coup. Valsaín is a small village at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, 8 km from Segovia.

Location precision: The village set stood in the pine forest near Valsaín; the pin marks the village itself.

Visitor guidance: Valsaín is 8 km from Segovia on the CL-601, at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama.

After the massacre Conan is chained to the Wheel of Pain and turns its great mill for years while the film cuts from the boy to Schwarzenegger's adult hero. The scene was shot in the province of Ávila, on the high ground between Robledillo and La Hija de Dios, in the municipality of Solosancho. The shoot ran from January to May 1981. Solosancho lies 24 km south of Ávila on the N-502; Robledillo is one of its hamlets among the hills of the Valle de Amblés.

Location precision: The scene was shot between Robledillo and La Hija de Dios; the pin marks Robledillo, a hamlet of Solosancho.

Visitor guidance: Solosancho is 24 km south of Ávila on the N-502; Robledillo is one of its hamlets.

On his wanderings Conan meets a prophetic witch and, soon after, the Hyrkanian archer Subotai, who joins him. The encounter was shot among the weathered limestone stacks of the Ciudad Encantada, outside Cuenca. The formations are a karst landscape that was declared a natural site of national interest in 1929. It is a private estate today, with a signposted 3 km trail that takes about an hour and a half; entry costs €6.

Visitor guidance: The site charges €6 and the signposted 3 km trail takes about an hour and a half.

Conan and Subotai ride into Zamora, the city where they meet the thief Valeria. For the city the production reused a fort built in the Almería desert for El Condor (1970), re-dressing the old set as an ancient city and extending it with miniature effects. The Almería film office lists the El Condor fort, in the Tabernas desert, among the locations. The city scenes lead into the raid on the Tower of Serpents.

Inside Zamora the bazaar was filmed in the Alcazaba of Almería, the Moorish citadel begun in 955 on the high ground above the city. The Alcazaba was dressed to look Hyborian for the market scenes. In Zamora Conan and Subotai meet Valeria, the brigand who joins them for the raid on the Tower of Serpents. The monument has since appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Wonder Woman 1984.

Visitor guidance: The Alcazaba stands in the upper part of Almería, above the port.

Doom's punishment comes on the Tree of Woe: Conan is crucified among the dunes and left for the vultures. The scene was shot in March 1981 on the sand dunes of the south-eastern Almería coast, in the Cabo de Gata area listed by the Almería film office. The dunes now lie inside the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park. For the shot the crew tethered live vultures to the branches.

Location precision: The exact dune is not documented; the pin marks the Cabo de Gata coast where the dunes lie.

Visitor guidance: The dunes are inside the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park, on the coast east of Almería.

Valeria and Subotai cut Conan down and carry him to Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds, but the spirits summoned to heal him try to drag him back, and the two fight them off. Later, on the same flat ground, Conan's small band destroys Doom's warriors using traps and the terrain. Both scenes were filmed in the salt marshes of Almerimar, now the protected Punta Entinas-Sabinar reserve between El Ejido and Roquetas de Mar, a flat country of dunes, shallow lagoons and marsh.

Location precision: The film names the salt marshes of Almerimar; the pin marks the Punta Entinas-Sabinar reserve beside the town.

Visitor guidance: The Punta Entinas-Sabinar reserve lies between El Ejido and Roquetas de Mar.

For the villain's stronghold the production built the temple of the Mountain of Power at the foot of the Peñón de Bernal in Vicar: a set 48 metres long and 22 high, with 120 steps, 1,500 extras and a bill of $350,000. Conan enters it disguised as a priest, is captured and tortured, and returns at the end to behead Doom. The set was burned after filming; the rock, 755 metres high, still rises above the land. Sports and active tourism are banned from May to December for nesting birds.

Visitor guidance: Sports and active tourism are banned from May to December for nesting birds; the rock is reached on a cycling route from Vicar.

The last shot belongs to an older King Conan, who speaks an excerpt from the Nemedian Chronicles and promises that his story will be told. It was filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey in October 1980, before the Spanish shoot, as a piece for a trailer; Milius moved it to the end of the film. Shepperton opened in 1931 and is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group.