FACT#114: Four months ago, few in this postcard-pretty little town had even heard of Game of Thrones. But these days, as the stars of the blockbuster television series mingle within Osuna's whitewashed walls, it's all anyone is talking about.
"It's hard to find the right words to describe how much hope and excitement this has brought to our town," says mayor Rosario Andújar Torrejón, one of many in Osuna who had never seen the show before it arrived, but is unwaveringly confident that it will change the town's fortunes for good.
HBO announced in July that season five of Game of Thrones would be shot, in part, in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, and their crew began arriving in the area in September. Filming began in Seville in early October, with the slender horseshoe arches and serene courtyards of the Royal Alcázar standing in for the royal palace of Dorne. Two weeks later, production was packed up and moved some 50 miles east to Osuna, a town of roughly 18,000 that most people in Spain would struggle to locate on a map.
Once home to one of the first universities in the country, Osuna has long depended on the surrounding olive groves for its prosperity. In recent years, a small service industry has also sprouted up to cater to the residents of the 20 or so villages and hamlets that surround the town. But demand is limited. More than one in three locals are unemployed, a rate that ranks as one of the highest in the European Union.
Previous Game of Thrones locations in Croatia, Malta and Northern Ireland all reported sharp increases in tourism after filming, and Osuna is poised to experience the same. "We've had two weekends in a row where the bars are so packed you can't even find a place to have a drink," says Torrejón. "Everyone has noticed - there are a lot of tourists. Even Americans, which we never saw before. Some used to joke that Americans didn't know where Spain was," she says, laughing. "But they've found it, and more importantly, they've found Osuna."
The tourists come just as olive growers are reeling from a prolonged drought and worries about a poor harvest, says Osuna Television's Manuel Villar. "Who would have thought that Game of Thrones would save us?"
Few in the town can afford to watch the series as it doesn't air on terrestrial television. But the excitement around the shoot is palpable. When Malaga-based Fresco Films announced it was casting extras for the show, 86,000 applications flooded in for 550 positions. Many of them were unemployed residents from Osuna, lured by the pay of 50 euros a day.
For most of the extras, the day begins before dawn in a municipal sports centre that has become the set's makeshift wardrobe area. From there, outfitted in the sombre colours of the Unsullied or in flowing robes ranging from baby blue to mustard yellow, they head on foot to Osuna's bullring. "We used to put them on buses, but so many photos have been leaked that now we just let them walk between the two," says one member of the production crew.
As the sun begins to set and filming ends for the day, the extras stream back towards the sports centre, hundreds of them filling the streets while excited fans snap pictures.
The real tourist boom is expected after the show airs in the spring. But the thousands who have already made the journey to Osuna have been warmly welcomed by the town's businesses and wooed with everything from Game of Thrones-themed jewellery to pastries. At the family-run Casa Curro restaurant, Teresa Jiménez created a special tapas menu to celebrate the characters of the show.
She had never seen the show, but two friends - "superfans", as she described them - spent a day with her in the kitchen tailoring the tapas. The result is a menu of eight dishes that range from the Khaleesi, a hearty salad of spinach and avocado dressed with honey and berries, to the Joffrey, a dish of trout and bacon garnished with mulled wine.
Other businesses have found a niche in catering to the crew. Adolfo Castellano, owner of a local ice-cream shop and bakery, happily created his first vegan ice-cream after hearing about what he charmingly understood to be an "allergy" to all animal products suffered by many in the crew.
One of the few locals who had seen the Game of Thrones before the crew's arrival, Castellano couldn't believe his luck when his phone rang one Thursday morning. "They wanted me to make a cake for Emilia Clarke's birthday - something big enough to feed 200 people." With just a few hours' notice, he and his staff turned out an elaborate chocolate cake oozing with layers of pralines and truffle and topped with the Targaryen sigil of a three-headed red dragon.
"She's super nice and really beautiful," says Castellano of the actor who plays Daenerys Targaryen. "Really beautiful." His limited English and her lack of Spanish limited the encounter to a few photos - "She put her arm around me," he brags, as his wife laughs - and rounds of "Happy Birthday" sung in English and then Spanish.
His giddy tone echoes that of the many fans a few streets over who have been keeping vigil outside the 18th-century hotel where the stars of the show have been staying. "It's chaos," says the hotel security guard, describing his daily tussles with fans as they try to get as close as possible to the stars. "Some 200 people a day come here, from all over Spain, Mexico, Chile, Britain. And they wait hours just to take a photo. It's crazy."
As he speaks, Estela Salvador Martín and her mother take their places behind the barriers set up around the hotel. The 25-year-old has dragged her mother on a four-hour round trip from Granada, hoping for an autograph from Clarke. Neither of them had ever been to Osuna before, nor had they contemplated a visit - until they heard that Game of Thrones would be filming here.
"We couldn't believe it when they said that Osuna had been chosen," says Salvador Martín, excitedly recounting how she had convinced her mother that they had to visit while the stars were in town. "I mean, it's Osuna. Who would have ever thought it?"
