A western village in Spain for2.5 million euros.

In 1968, Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson came to Spain to shoot the legendary movie "Once Upon a Time in the Wild West", directed by Sergio Leone. This movie became iconic for fans of the "spaghetti western". Filming took place in the desert of Almeria, in the town of Tabernas, on a specially built for Leone and his actors site called "Leone's Western". And now, 55 years later, it's up for sale for 2.5 million euros.

For many years, Almeria has served as a cinematic center for the filming of many Western films, both foreign and Spanish. Thanks to movies such as The Good, the Bad, the Evil, Lawrence of Arabia or Cleopatra, Almeria, Andalucía and Spain became known across the ocean. Fort Bravo/Texas Hollywood, Oasis and Western Leone, located within a few meters of each other, were three of the most sought-after studios for filming westerns, but over time the sites were forgotten and later used as theme parks.

In July 2022, the Rukas Group's property Western Leone was put up for sale at a price of around 2.5 million euros. More than a year later, the complex has still not found a new owner, but the sale is now being handled by real estateagency Remax Indalo. The sale of the studio is unique as the other sites that make up Almeria Wild West are owned by different owners.

In addition to its use as a movie set, the space can be used for filming commercials, video clips or continuing as a theme park, which also hosts some of the events of the Almeria Western Film Festival. Recently, the space dedicated to the Italian director was rented to film some scenes of the movie "Strange Life" by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, together with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, with Western elements. A few months ago, Viggo Mortensen could also enjoy the delights of a Western Leone when he filmed his latest movie, Dead Don't Bother.

Until 1990, the Old West served as a filming location for American western and spaghetti western genre films such as Death in Plain Sight, also directed by Sergio Leone, shot on the Oasis site, now operated by Senator Hotels & Resorts under the name Oasis Mini-Hollywood. And all these years later, Fort Bravo/Texas Hollywood and Western Leone have also served as theme parks, though they're getting more difficult to operate each year. According to the current owners of the Leone site, it averages barely more than a hundred visitors on weekends, though there are spikes in attendance during the summer. The Western Leone website itself invites visitors by offering "an original and authentic location where some of the most epic movies in movie history were filmed, such as: 'Once Upon a Time in the Wild West,' 'For a Fistful of Dollars,' and many others." In this case, though, a visit costs a handful of euros rather than a handful of dollars: 12 euros for an adult and 6 euros for a child, not including the cost of restaurant menus, which can range from 8 to 12 euros.