It looked like real town from the Old West – complete with boardwalks, businesses, and even a saloon. But it wasn’t Tombstone or Dodge City – but rather the outskirts of Ljubljana.
The Western town was built in the Tomačevo district of Ljubljana in the 1960s and for much of the decade, it served as a movie set for Western European film crews. At the time, the European craze for Westerns was at its peak, and foreign film shots provided Yugoslavia with some much-needed hard currency. Some of the movies were typical “Spaghetti Westerns” of the era, but an installment of Germany’s popular Winnetou series of films was also shot there. Many Slovenians got a chance to work on the sets, as technical crew, extras, and stuntmen. Demeter Bitenc even had a major role in Winnetou; he went on to act in a number of international co-productions and was one of only a handful of Slovenians to successfully pursue an acting career abroad.
At its peak, two to three movies a year were shot at Ljubljana’s Western town, and several well-known actors, including the American Lex Barker of “Tarzan” fame, filmed there.
The “town” was mostly a set with fake facades, but the saloon also had an indoor portion where interior scenes could also be shot. Local children frequently gathered to watch the action – cowboys shooting each other, falling from high places, and being attacked by Indians. The Western town brought the spirit of the Old West to Ljubljana.
As the golden age of the Western came to a close, so did film production in Tomačevo. The sets were replaced by illegal housing, mostly built by migrants from other former Yugoslav republics. Even parts of the sets were used by newcomers to build their simple shacks. Today, the makeshift appearance of the settlement gives it an appearance still vaguely recalling the days of the Wild West.