Gold films of 400 Å thickness were evaporated under UHV-conditions on (111)-, (110)-and (100)-oriented silicon substrates and were subsequently investigated by x-ray diffraction. Mainly the influence of orientation and cleanliness of the substrate on film structure was studied. Informations on the orientation and size of the crystallites as well as on lattice distortions were obtained by analysing intensity, angular displacement and width of the diffraction peaks. It is found that the gold films show a preferred (111)-orientation in all cases; only the degree of orienta-tion changes with the pretreatment of the substrate. The size of the (111)-oriented crystallites cor-responds to the film thickness, and a noticeable density of intrinsic stacking faults can be detected.