Description
Camp Nou, "New Field" in Catalan, is the home stadium of FC Barcelona, in the Les Corts district. It opened in 1957 and has been the club's ground ever since, one of the great temples of football, with a museum devoted to the club.
It was built because Barça had outgrown its old ground at Les Corts, and the arrival of the star László Kubala in 1950 made a bigger home urgent. The work was supposed to take eight months. The bill came to more than four times the estimate, and the club borrowed heavily for years.
The design took its model from De Kuip, Feyenoord's stadium in Rotterdam: oval rings around the pitch, giving continuous stands with no open corners. The stands rise in a huge bowl. Big nights fill it with noise, and bad ones with a very large silence.
The club museum, opened in 1984, is the second most visited museum in Catalonia. It is a good plan for football fans even on days without a match.
The stadium was meant to bear the name of the club's founder, Joan Gamper, but Franco's authorities refused, and when it opened on the feast of La Mercè in 1957 it had no official name. Some 90,000 people filled the stands for a mass, Handel's Hallelujah and a parade of clubs from all over Catalonia.
Under the dictatorship the club itself had to use a Spanish name from 1941 to 1973. In 1986 the stands held Barça's record crowd: 120,000 people for a European Cup quarter-final against Juventus.
Not only Barça's nights are remembered. The stadium hosted the opening match of the 1982 World Cup, when Belgium upset Argentina 1-0, and the football final of the 1992 Olympics. In 1999 Manchester United won the Champions League here with two goals in injury time.
The stadium also has a chapel for the players, a memorabilia shop and mini-pitches for training matches.
The stadium was renovated in 1993-94, when the pitch was lowered by 2.5 meters and standing room gave way to individual seats.
Don't miss
• The club museum.
• A match night.
• The view over the oval stands.
Did you know?
• In a 1965 members' vote on the official name, "Camp Nou" came only third. It became official in 2001.
• In 2017 a league match against Las Palmas was played in an empty stadium, amid Catalonia's political turmoil.
• Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and U2 have all played concerts here.
It was built because Barça had outgrown its old ground at Les Corts, and the arrival of the star László Kubala in 1950 made a bigger home urgent. The work was supposed to take eight months. The bill came to more than four times the estimate, and the club borrowed heavily for years.
The design took its model from De Kuip, Feyenoord's stadium in Rotterdam: oval rings around the pitch, giving continuous stands with no open corners. The stands rise in a huge bowl. Big nights fill it with noise, and bad ones with a very large silence.
The club museum, opened in 1984, is the second most visited museum in Catalonia. It is a good plan for football fans even on days without a match.
The stadium was meant to bear the name of the club's founder, Joan Gamper, but Franco's authorities refused, and when it opened on the feast of La Mercè in 1957 it had no official name. Some 90,000 people filled the stands for a mass, Handel's Hallelujah and a parade of clubs from all over Catalonia.
Under the dictatorship the club itself had to use a Spanish name from 1941 to 1973. In 1986 the stands held Barça's record crowd: 120,000 people for a European Cup quarter-final against Juventus.
Not only Barça's nights are remembered. The stadium hosted the opening match of the 1982 World Cup, when Belgium upset Argentina 1-0, and the football final of the 1992 Olympics. In 1999 Manchester United won the Champions League here with two goals in injury time.
The stadium also has a chapel for the players, a memorabilia shop and mini-pitches for training matches.
The stadium was renovated in 1993-94, when the pitch was lowered by 2.5 meters and standing room gave way to individual seats.
Don't miss
• The club museum.
• A match night.
• The view over the oval stands.
Did you know?
• In a 1965 members' vote on the official name, "Camp Nou" came only third. It became official in 2001.
• In 2017 a league match against Las Palmas was played in an empty stadium, amid Catalonia's political turmoil.
• Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and U2 have all played concerts here.