1. Lights, camera, action at the Neocave of Altamira
Cultural Route of Spain to which it belongs: Prehistoric Rock Art Trails
First, the context: the Altamira cave, in Cantabria, is not just one of the pinnacles of prehistoric art whose discovery and the ‘controversy’ it brought (which sparked a debate across Europe) in turn shed light on a fascinating story that, sooner or later, had to be brought to the big screen.
This happened in 2016 when the director of the iconic ‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981), Hugh Hudson, landed in Santillana del Mar (Cantabria) to ride alongside Antonio Banderas a film that would immortalise a casual, controversial and unforgettable discovery.
In 2022, 154 years after its discovery, Not only is there one Altamira cave, but two. On the one hand, the original cave, the authentic one, the stone canvas on which our ancestors inscribed the most beautiful herd of bison (they came to use the protrusions of the stones to convey three-dimensionality, hundreds of years before James Cameron popularised 3D techniques in ‘Avatar’) of Art History.
On the other hand, the Neocave or, in other words, an exact reproduction of the original cave to safeguard its integrity and, at the same time, allow universal access to the bison. And it is right here, in the reproduction, where the filming took place Altamira (2016) and the exciting discovery sequences.
Of course, the surrounding environments and villages of Altamira also served as locations for other episodes in the lives of the discoverers of the paintings, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter María Sanz de Sautuola. Recognisable landscapes pass by on the big screen in Santillana del Mar one of the most beautiful villages in Spain that we've already talked about here or Gaudí's Whim that is in the neighbouring Quotation marks.
2. Blade Runner 2049: filming between two Baroque villages and Holy Week processions
Cultural Route of Spain to which it belongs: Paths of Passion
What connection can there be between a futuristic film and a cultural route that champions, among many other things, the Jewels of Andalusian Baroque artA ‘solar’ relationship. Are there any links between Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling And the nearby Guadalquivir river domains? The answer is ‘yes’.
Those who travel by car along the dual carriageway linking the Sevillian towns of Carmona y Écija, two of the stops on the ‘Semana Santa’ route Paths of Passion and you see, on one side, an immense tower emerging from the cultivated fields. This is the most visible part of Gemsoar power station (which generates electricity from solar energy, so abundant in these parts), a vast construction difficult to decipher at street level but easily understood from a bird's-eye view (or from Google Maps).
The station had its 15 minutes of fame appearing for a few seconds at the start of the film ‘Blade Runner 2049’(Denis Villeneuve, 2107). At first glance it is not easy to relate what is seen from the roadside to what is shown (digital retouching has turned a single solar station into a gigantic farm with several of them) but it is enough to know the installation a little to feel a tingling with excitement When you see the film.
It's nice that this corner of Andalusia has made it to Hollywood thanks to one of its ‘towers’, as both the town of Carmona and (especially) Écija The villages are more than famous for their towers and bell towers. Écija receives the nickname of the ‘City of Towers’ for its eleven baroque towers: they were erected during the economic boom the city experienced during its own Golden Age. Carmona (which is Crossroads from Spanish Cultural Routeshas a repertoire of bell towers so powerful that it even includes a replica/homage/nod to Seville's Giralda: it's in the church of San Pedro and, due to its resemblance, is popularly known as ‘La Giraldilla’.
Do you want to see the opening of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ where the solar station between Carmona and Écija is shown? Here You have the first 5 minutes in which he appears.
3. Charles V and (his good friend) the Colossus of Rhodes in Laredo
Cultural Route of Spain to which it belongs: The Emperor Charles V's Routes
Only the magic of cinema would make it possible such a mismatched pairing as this; only celluloid would be capable of turning a fishing port in northern Spain, bathed by the fresh waters of the Cantabrian Sea, into the Greek locality of Rhodes (on the shores of the warm Mediterranean) at some point in the 3rd century BC.
That's exactly what happens, point by point, in the film ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’, directed by Sergio Leone in 1960 and largely filmed on the great fishing pier in the town of Laredo, Cantabria. Right at the end of it, at the mouth of the harbour, it would be supported (in the film, of course) One of the feet of this mythical statue, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the greatest artwork of its kind of the era, at 33 metres in height (the The Statue of Liberty in New York measures 46 metres. excluding the pedestal.
In the film (or in the loose sequences uploaded to YouTube such as This: The Laredo breakwater can be easily distinguished. as well as Mount Bereh, which backs it.
It so happens that, a few centuries before that filming, Laredo has already seen a major maritime event: to its port (the same one as the filming but with a very different look and dimensions to the film) Emperor Charles V arrived from Flanders in 1556 with the intention of settling in the Monastery of Yuste in Cáceres. (in Extremadura) and spend the last years of his life there. Unlike the colossus, The events with Charles V really happened in Laredo. And both this landing and his subsequent journey through half of Spain left such an immense mark that it can be evoked through the Routes of Emperor Charles V.
By the way, on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th of September 2022, Laredo will once again host the Historical Recreation Festival of ‘The Last Landing of Charles V’. We have no news that the Colossus of Rhodes will be attending the tribute at any point.
4. Winter is Coming to... Cáceres, in Extremadura
Cultural Route of Spain to which it belongs: Vía de la Plata Route
Often, in guides, reports and books, a tired cliché is usually resorted to in order to describe the charm of the city of Cáceres, a historic city in the heart of Extremadura: It seems that time has stopped for her. It looks like she was locked in a glass case at some point in the 18th century and then unpacked yesterday.
The streets, buildings, or nooks of Cáceres They smell so much of the past that when a period film or series needs to be shot, barely any changes are needed. There isn't even any need to ban traffic because cars don't go there.
These and some other advantages were identified by the location managers ‘Game of Thrones’ selected the city as a film set sequences from the 7th season of the series in the year 2016, those in which the town of King's Landing. What can be recognised in that brace of chapters from Cáceres? An excellent repertoire of the city's heritage milestones: the Cuesta de la Compañía, San Mateo Church (with the Watchtower of the Storks in the background), the Cristo walkway, the Plaza de Santa María and, especially, the Star Arch, with particular prominence in Euron Greyjoy's triumphant parade. Cáceres's main appearances can be seen here Same.
The Cáceres footage continued outside the walls, but to discover these locations (the battle between the Lannisters and Khaleesi in the natural landscapes of Los Barruecos, shown for over 15 long minutes) you have to take the car… given the impossibility of travelling on horseback and backed by a dragon. What a shame.
P.S. In 2021, Game of Thrones returned to the Cáceres capital to film a prequel to the series, ‘House of the Dragon,’ which is set to premiere in the second half of 2022.
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the Cypress of Silos and El Cid Campeador
Cultural Route of Spain to which it belongs: The Way of El Cid
Of the hundreds of ‘final duels’ gifted to us by the golden age of Western cinema, there's one that no one forgets: Sergio Leone's 1966 film ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's’ final three-way showdown, with music by Ennio Morricone. For over 15 minutes there are stares, frowns, silences and tension. The landscape (a cemetery surrounded by an amphitheatre of mountainsis, practically, another actor.
The landscape in question is located in Spain, in the province of Burgos (Castilla y León), in a region, the Arlanza, which served as the filming location for almost the entirety of Leone's film starring Clint Eastwood. The film features, among other locations, the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza or the Fuente Tubilla bridge, but it's the plain below the Peña de Villanueva where the Sad Hill Cemetery (the Sad Hill) which in 2015 was recovered and restored by a group of volunteers After half a century of neglect.
The place remains the same as in the film: in the middle of the enclosure, a circle of rock shards around which the graves bearing names orbit (but not their bodies, of course). of all those who financed the recovery of the place.
This corner of the Arlanza region you are in abundance of natural and cultural attractions. Sad Hill Cemetery is the latest to be added to a list which is undoubtedly headed by A village with medieval charm and one of the most popular monasteries and with very good reasons for it) from Spain: Santo Domingo de Silos.
The monastery is known for its Romanesque cloister, its unsettling apothecary, a century-old cypress tree, and the surprising musical success its monks achieved in the 90s when The records they made with Gregorian chants became bestsellers. Also, for being intimately linked to the figure of The Cid Campeador and the road that bears his nameThe Way of El Cid) What happens in this secluded valley and he abandons it for the best and most spectacular place possible: the La Yecla gorge.
Who would have won in a duel between Clint Eastwood and El Cid? We'll never know...
More News
