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50 Years Ago Today in Rome ….  

50 years ago today, on December 20, 1968, Sergio Leone’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ was released in Rome. The film used multiple locations in southeastern Spain, constructing the town of Flagstone was along the train tracks near Guadix and McBain’s Sweetwater Ranch in the Tabernas desert. The log cabin ranch house is now the centerpiece of ‘Western Leone‘, one of three film sets turned tourist attractions. In contrast, little remains of Flagstone except for a few brick structures now partially incorporated into an adjacent chicken farm.

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La Calahorra  

For the town of Flagstone in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), production designer Carlo Simi constructed a western street set at the La Calahorra train station near Guadix. Little remains today but the brick structures of the Phoenix Bank and the Hotel, which have been partially absorbed into an adjacent chicken farm. Once Upon a Time in Almería: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain’ (Daylight Books 2017)

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