Address: Spain, Barcelona
Build date: 1957 year
Opening date: 09.24.1957 year
Architect: Josep Soteras, Lorenzo Garcia-Barbon
Capacity: 99 354 (2012)
Home team: Barcelona
Coordinates: 41 ° 22'50.6 "N 2 ° 07'22.6" E
Content:
Short description
To visit Barcelona and not visit the legendary Camp Nou stadium, which, despite its "young age", is one of the main attractions of the capital of Catalonia, is an unforgivable mistake for any tourist.
Bird's-eye view of the stadium
Even for the tourist who is not interested in football. Although, it will hardly be possible to find a civilized person on our planet who does not know about the Barcelona football club. Surprisingly, it is this sports arena that is recognized as one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Barcelona. FC Barcelona, which has recently terrified any football club in the world, and rarely knows the bitterness of defeat, is the pride of the city of the same name, as is its Camp Nou stadium. The name of the stadium can be literally translated into Russian as “New Field”. This "New Field" was inaugurated on September 24, 1957 and almost immediately won the love of football fans and all Catalans who are proud of their famous club.
It is worth noting that the luxurious stadium, which is considered one of the best in the world, was originally called simply and unpretentiously - the football stadium of FC Barcelona. However, viewers who came to watch the matches with their favorite team immediately gave him the nickname Camp Nou. Camp Nou was the unofficial name of the stadium until 2000. At the beginning of the 21st century, FC Barcelona's stadium was officially named Camp Nou. Although, by that time, the huge sports facility could no longer be called new. However, the Catalans are a freedom-loving and demanding nation: if the stadium was called Camp Nou, then so be it, because the fans living in Barcelona decided so. In a city where the people decide everything.
View of the southwest facade of the stadium
Camp Nou construction
Barcelona President Francesc Miro-Sans decided to build a huge stadium in Barcelona instead of the old Camp de Les Corts. He, like any other Catalan, wanted his favorite football club to be stronger than his "inveterate enemy" Real Madrid. “It is unacceptable that Barcelona does not have a stadium that surpasses the stadium in Madrid,” said Francesc Miro-Sanz roughly as the Spanish capital has already completed the sports arena, which is now called the Santiago Bernabeu.
At the beginning of autumn 1953, the grandiose construction of the stadium began, which in the future will be called "New Field" and will become legendary. Designed and supervised by Miro-Sansa's cousin. If you look at the preliminary estimate for the construction, you will notice that it was originally supposed to spend a little more than 67 million pesetas on materials and wages for the workers. However, as is known from Murphy's law, no construction, under any circumstances, will cost the amount that was planned in advance. So it happened with Camp Nou: it took almost 230 (!) million pesetas to build a new field for FC Barcelona.
Construction lasted until 1957. If the stadium was built in our time, when the budgets of top clubs can enter into a mute shock, all work would have been completed much earlier. However, in the middle of the 20th century, Barcelona could not afford to invest huge amounts of money and construction was delayed. True, the timing was influenced not only by the financial deficit, but also by the difficulties faced by the workers.
Be that as it may, on September 24, 1957, the "stadium of FC Barcelona" was inaugurated. He could provide the opportunity to enjoy the great game of his favorite team 90,000 spectators. How could such a significant event be celebrated in a city where almost every inhabitant was a football fan? Of course, to play a match, albeit a friendly one. On the field, which the Catalans immediately called Camp Nou, in honor of the opening of the stadium, two teams entered: Barcelona and Legia from Poland. The audience was jubilant, the new stadium and the very first victory of Barcelona at the Novy Pole. The Catalans defeated the Poles 4: 2.
The first goal at the Camp Nou, fortunately for the Spanish fans, was not scored by a foreign player, but by Eulohio Martinez from Barcelona. By the way, this footballer was the first to score a hat-trick in the new sports arena: this joyful event took place during the meeting between Barcelona and Real, not Madrid, but from the Spanish province of Jaen.
Monument to Ladislao Kubala
Camp Nou: continuous improvement
It was decided to rebuild the stadium of FC Barcelona for the first time in 1981. This year was not chosen by chance: the stadium simply had to be expanded, in the opinion of the Catalans, in order to host the official matches of the FIFA World Cup held in Spain in 1982. Hosting guests from other countries of the world, the inhabitants of Barcelona could not help but be proud of their luxurious football arena: after a number of works carried out, it already accommodated 120,000 fans. In fairness, it should be noted that not all fans could watch football while sitting, some had to stand. It is for this reason that in 1998 the stadium had to be rebuilt once again. UEFA introduced new rules: one of them said: on the football field, for safety reasons, all fans must be in their seats.
The second redevelopment of Camp Nou took more time and wasted a lot of money: the designers had to lower the lawn to reduce the capacity only marginally. After the completion of the work, the capacity of the "New Field" was 98,934 seats.
Northwest stand view
The authorities of the capital of Catalan autonomy and the club decided not to stop there: in 2007, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of one of the main attractions of modern Barcelona, it was decided to improve it again... Now Camp Nou was to become a real "cut diamond" in the world of football. In early September, the most eminent architects took part in a competition to rebuild the "new" field, which was about to turn 50 years old. It is not surprising that the tender was won by Foster and Partners. After all, experts from this architectural bureau have worked on the legendary Wembley and other equally famous sports facilities.
The project of the new stadium, which literally in more than 3 years will become a truly luxurious and, one might even say, chic sports arena, was presented on September 22. Real professionals in their field from Fosters & Partners were able to calculate everything so quickly and introduce new elements to the Camp Nou. According to their design, the main stadium in Barcelona should accommodate exactly 106,000 fans. In addition, the architects decided to significantly expand the VIP-Zone, because wealthy fans, movie and show business stars come and come from all over the world to the matches with Barcelona, who appreciate not only the excellent game of the football club, but also the comfort.
Stadium tribune
Camp Nou: the stadium is an attraction
Nowadays, getting to the Camp Nou stadium is a dream for almost any traveler who purchased a tour to Barcelona and came to this truly amazing and beautiful city. Despite the fact that the "age" of this sports arena is much less than that of Wembley, it causes genuine delight in a person, especially if he managed to get to an official match of FC Barcelona.You can meet a lot of people in a crowded arena: tourists, residents of Barcelona, Arab sheikhs, and famous politicians.
After the last restructuring, even the lighting of the stadium is a fantastic sight. The Barcelona anthem, the legendary team with Lionel Messi, the jubilant stands - all this is an extravaganza, a celebration that does not subside for a minute during a football match. And if you imagine what is happening at the stadium during the famous El Classico ... However, even when the stadium becomes quiet, the Camp Nou complex awaits everyone in its museum, in fine restaurants, at Mini Estadi, where future football stars are training not only in Barcelona and Spain, but also in the whole world. By the way, even the Mini estadi training stadium accommodates 20,000 (!) Spectators. And the places there are never empty, and hardly any other club in Europe can boast of such an achievement. Is that Real Madrid ...
At the Barcelona Museum
The Camp Nou hosted the finals of both the European Championship and the FIFA World Cup. Interesting fact, Camp Nou in 1964 became happy for the Soviet Union national football team: on June 17, the USSR won with a decent score 3: 0 in the semifinal match against the Danish national team... This match, due to the "closed nature" of the USSR, did not cause a stir, although almost 39,000 fans were present at the "Novy Pole" of Barcelona that day.
Numerous excursions around Barcelona quite often include a visit to the Camp Nou, its museum, sports arena and school. This is not surprising, since this sports complex received the highest rating from UEFA with "five stars", which is quite rare. And besides the fact that the strongest club in the world plays on its field, the most eminent singers of our vast planet give concerts at Camp Nou with enviable regularity. Three legendary tenors once performed on the arena of Barcelona: Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo. The stands of the "New Field" heard the voices of Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias and other equally famous stars. All of them were proud of their performances on the field of this complex.
At the Barcelona Museum. In the foreground is the layout of the stadium
How could it be otherwise, because Camp Nou is passion, excitement, jealousy, devotion and boundless love. Can you describe the stadium in this way? It is possible, and even necessary, if we are talking about the great Camp Nou or ... the stadium of the eternal and main enemy of FC Barcelona - Santiago Bernabeu.
