Guide to Barcelona

History of Camp Nou

Miércoles 06 de Octubre de 2010 08:17

Fc Barcelona Football Club

When visiting Barcelona, a must see for tourists is the Camp Nou stadium.

It is one of Barcelona's major attractions and every year a lot of people come to visit it.

Camp Nou is known as one the most impressive stadia in the world. It is part of a selected few footballstadia to have received a 5 star status by the Eufa. It has been said that the atmosphere is so good that even in a empty stadium you can still feel the great ambiance that was there from the game the night before.

The stadium opened its doors for supporters in 1957 and was designed by architechs Francesc Mitjans Miro, Lorenzo Garcia Barbon and Josep Soteras Mauri after  Former chairman Frances Miro-Sans thought the stadium the club had  back then, camp de les corts became to small.

The total costs of the stadium were 288 milion pesetas, which meant the 3 years of construction and extra costs caused it to go 336% over the intentioned budget. When it was opened officially on 24 September 1956 Handels' Messiah was performed, total seats of the stadium back then were 93.053. In 1982 for the World cup that took place in Spain, the stadium was renovated and the seats were increased to 120.000. However, the 90's new regulations outlawing standing areas caused for the seats to be reduced back to under 99.000.

The stadium is off course known as Barcelona's home turf, but also serves by hosting matches from the Catalan National team. Over time the stadium has been used as a host for several big matches, champions league finals, World cup matches and some of the 1992 olympic matches.

Camp Nou has also been used for other purposes,such as musical events. e.g. Michael jackson,us,Bruce Springsteen,Julio Iglesias have all performed in Camp Nou.
Also it was used for the visit of Pope John Paul II on 7 November 1982.
The official name of the stadium was Estadi del FC Barcelona until 2000 when the knickname Camp Nou was officialy adopted. but everyone always knew and called it Camp Nou. Which literally means New Field in Catalan.

Besides football it also serves for Several other sports as: basketball,hockey,handball and futsall.
The stadium also has a lot of facilities such as a chapel,mini pitches for training games, memorabilia shop and the well known FC Barcelona museum which receives over 1.2 milion visites per year, and thus making it the second most visited museum in Barcelona.

Camp Nou being such a big venue for so many things is part of the clubs motto: "Mes que un club"
It was scheduled to remodel Camp Nou, but recently chosen clubpresident Sandro Rosell has put the idea on hold.
So as for now it will stay one of Barcelona's most well known attractions and home to FC Barcelona.
When you are visiting Barcelona make sure to come by Camp nou and experience the great sight and atmosphere for yourself.

Visiting FCBarcelona matches? Find holiday apartments Barcelona, and take a look at Barcelona Real estate if you are thinking of buying a property here.