Cinema and television production houses have seen in Guadalajara the ideal location for different films, TV series, TV commercials or musical video-clips. Some of this places could be easily identified by visitors. The most regular filming locations have been the Fort of San Francisco and the Guadalajara Provincial Jail.
Here we offer a tour of the most iconic and instantly recognisable locations from the world of cinema, for the enjoyment of visitors and film-goers alike:
Municipal Cemetery
Its beautiful mausoleums have served as the setting for scenes in popular TV series such as “El caso” (Ignacio Mercero, 2016), in which actors Verónica Sánchez and Fernando Guillén-Cuervo entered the mausoleum of the Marquises of Villamejor to appear in a nocturnal crypt in San Francisco, where the scene in which the detectives were investigating took place. "Víctor Ros 2" (Fernando López Puig, 2016), the gripping story of a criminal who becomes a police officer, also used this location to film several of its scenes, sharing the filming site with the Fort of San Francisco.
Infantado Palace
Now a candidate for World Heritage status, it has welcomed clapperboards and filmmakers within its walls. Sand and horses took over the Plaza de los Caídos to recreate a Renaissance Italian palace. The reason was to film the prequel to “Romeo and Juliet” (*Still Star-Crossed*, 2016); less successful was the filming of the US blockbuster “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” (Terry Gilliam, 2000), which, following a series of setbacks, was eventually shelved.
Old Town (Plaza Mayor and Calle Mayor, Co-Cathedral of Santa María, San Roque)
"La luna en botella" (Grojo, 2006) and the music video "La calle de la pantomima" (Melendi, 2005) are two of the productions filmed in the heart of the historic quarter. "Tía Tula" (Picazo, 1963) was also filmed in the city centre, specifically on Benito Chávarri Street, Ramón y Cajal Street, and both inside and outside the Co-Cathedral of Santa María. For the film “The Clear Motives of Desire” (Picazo, 1976), the director chose the recently refurbished San Roque Municipal Summer Swimming Pool and the exterior walls of the San Diego Alcalá Foundation (Adoratrices).
The main façade of the San Diego Alcalá Foundation also became the university in another well-known, recent series: "Brothers" (Multipark Ficción, 2014). Set in the 1980s, the series would be based at the Fort of San Francisco; the buildings of the Alamín ravine in the background would serve as a natural backdrop, perfectly suited to recreating the atmosphere the series required.
San Francisco Fort
But if there is one location that stands out, renowned among major production companies for its great versatility, it is the San Francisco Fort, where the largest number of productions have been filmed, some of which were shot almost entirely there. A wide variety of films and TV series, such as “Mortadelo and Filemón. Mission: Save the Planet” (Miguel Bardem, 2007), “Brain Drain” (Fernando González Molina, 2009), “The Sonata of Silence” (Fernando López Puig, 2016), "The Time in Between" (Ignacio Mercero, 2013), "Brothers", "Apaches" (Miguel Sáez Carral, 2015), "Víctor Ros 2" and also "The Prince" (Aitor Gabilondo and César Benítez, 2014–2016), have all made use of the potential offered by this magnificent natural setting, its naves, and even the Mendoza crypt beneath the church’s apse.
Provincial Prison
Prisons have been another favourite setting for the film-makers who have come to Guadalajara. Now closed, it has been the setting for scenes in films such as “El Lute II” (Vicente Aranda, 1988), “My Prison Yard” (Belén Macías, 2008) and “Football Days” (David Serrano, 2003), in which its outer walls are instantly recognisable in one of the film’s scenes. "The Sleeping Voice" (Benito Zambrano, 2011), set in post-war Spain, was one of the most recent films shot at this location.
Other spaces
But the locations visited along this great cinematic journey are beginning to give way to new ones. This is the case with the Municipal Zoo, which recently served as a filming location for the popular series “Cuéntame”, or “El Príncipe”, which shot several action scenes at the bus station, using state-of-the-art technology to superimpose the sea in the background of the platform, transporting all of us viewers right to the city of Ceuta itself.
