Spaghetti Westerns were Italian filmmakers’ response to popular American Western films shot during the 1930s through the late 1950s. Westerns were popular in both Europe and the United States, so there was a high demand for them. movies and places where they could be filmed. As the popularity of television westerns increased and going to the movies to see your favorite Western stars in America declined, interest in going to the movies to watch westerns continued to grow in Europe.
European producers searched for locations to film close to home.
Western movie locations
Italy had some dry, high desert cities that fit the bill for these Italian western movies. Many films called “Spaghetti Westerns” were shot in the Spanish desert region of Almería and some around Rome, but many were shot in San Salvatore di Cabras, a small Sardinian town on the outskirts of Cabras, near Oristano.
If you go to San Salvatore di Cabras, you will find many facades of houses that seem to have come out of a wild west set, because, well, they practically have. They were transformed in the 1960s during the heyday of Spaghetti Westerns into Wild West movie towns. There’s even a bar in San Salvatore where a cowboy would feel right at home, the kind of place where you can dump peanut shells on the floor.
Festival de San Salvatore
San Salvatore isn’t just about Spaghetti Westerns. The San Salvatore Festival, held the first weekend in September, is one of the oldest festivals in Sardinia. San Salvatore can seem deserted at any other time of the year; many people keep small houses here just to accommodate their families during the festival.
The festival focuses on the Corsa Degli Scalzi, a 9-kilometer barefoot event where young people in white robes carry a statue of San Salvatore, from the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cabras to the small church of San Salvatore di Sinis. The race is repeated the next day when the runners return the statue to the original church. The race represents the rescue of the statue during the 16th century after an attack by the Saracens.
After the annual events, everyone gathers in the evening to celebrate with grilled fish and drink Vernaccia, a local wine. There’s traditional Sardinian music, family activities, and a fun night topped off with fireworks.
Pagan worship of water
This area has been important even before the 1500s, as the church of San Salvatore (Church of the Holy Savior) was built on top of an ancient underground sanctuary dedicated to the pagan cult of water. Below the left aisle of the church there is an underground chamber that shows evidence of having been used as early as the Neolithic period. Even today you can go down a small staircase to the area where there are small rooms, one with a well, which leads to the main room with a spring fountain.
