Europe’s only desert is in Spain and it hides a tiny Hollywood

Plenty of arid regions can be found throughout Spain and the rest of Europe. However, the European continent only has one desert. This space covers 280 square kilometres, one of the reasons behind its fame. But its popularity really lies in the fact that many film masterpieces have been shot here.

Europe’s only desert is a movie set

Rain is rare and it is usually torrential. High temperatures and more than 3000 hours of sunlight. These are the main ingredients of this arid, breathtaking horizon that lies among the mountain ranges of Filabres and Alhamilla.

This place literally looks straight out of a movie, and it’s only 30 kilometres from the capital city of Almería. The Tabernas Desert has been the perfect setting for a wide number of fims and spots since the 1960s.

Tabernas and cinema

World-renowned westerns should be highlighted. Many prestigious actors and great film directors have visited this striking landscape, which has come to be known as ‘Europe’s Hollywood.’

Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Sergio Leone, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole, and Sophia Loren… You’ve probably have watched some of their works. And they all have been to this treasure in Almería.

Scenes from Wild West films have been shot here: ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’, ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, and ‘For a Few Dollars More’, to name a few. But the diverse film catalog goes even further with works such as ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘Cleopatra’, and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

This region is so highly valued that it was awarded the distinction of Treasure of European Film Culture by the European Film Academy in 2020.

Nowadays, spots, short films, videoclips, TV shows, and movies are still shot here. Overall, more than 300 works have been shot in this area since the late 1950s.

The ‘tiny Hollywood’, an oasis of leisure

Oasys MiniHollywood is a must-see for every film enthusiast, a theme park of Wild West-inspired movie sets. The saloon, the telegraph and the sheriff’s offices, the bank, and the funeral home are only a few of these small rooms that take you to another era.

Besides, two museums hide objects linked to the films that were shot here. And you will also find a water park, a small zoo with more than 800 animals, and a wide number of restaurants, swimming pools, and educational activities that will delight every member of the family. An exhibition that recreates the atmosphere of this period and a can-can performance await you in the main square. The latter was a common practice in the nineteenth-century Wild West.

What to see around the Tabernas Desert

This place is so much more than a movie set. It is also home to a great history. The eleventh-century fortress of the Castillo de Tabernas was built during Muslim rule. It sits on a hill, a privileged location that allows it to watch over the homonymous locality of Tabernas. This is one of the most beautiful villages in Almería, which you should visit too. Tabernas houses the San Sebastián Hermitage, a temple built between the 13th and 14th centuries that was used as a synagogue at first.

But if you’re a hiking lover you’ll probably prefer to enjoy this interesting area through its routes of varying difficulty and itineraries. You might even be lucky enough to see flora and fauna species that can’t be found anywhere else in the world, such as the spiny-footed lizard, the alpine swift, the blue rock thrush, and the fennec fox.