Olympic Stadium Barcelona

Olympic Stadium Barcelona
Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
The Olympic Park with the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Hall Palau Sant Jordi (back left)
Earlier names
Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc (until 2001)
Data
place	Barcelona , Catalonia , Spain
Coordinates	41 ° 21 '53 "  N , 2 ° 9' 20"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 21 '53 "  N , 2 ° 9' 20"  E
classification	4th
owner	City of Barcelona
opening	1929
First game	May 20, 1929 Catalan selection - Bolton Wanderers 4-0
Renovations	1989, 2010
surface	Natural grass
architect	Pere Domènech i Roura
capacity	55,000 seats
playing area	105 × 70 m
Societies)
Espanyol Barcelona (1997-2009) Barcelona Dragons (1991–92 and 1995–2003)
Events
Olympic Games 1992 1992 Summer Paralympics European Athletics Championships 2010 World Junior Athletics Championships 2012 Final of the Copa del Rey 1930 , 1933 , 1934 , 1939 , 1944 , 1945 , 1946 , 1957 , 2004 1955 Mediterranean Games Athletics World Cup 1989 World Bowl V 1997 American Bowl 1993 and 1994 World Police and Fire Games 2003

The Barcelona Olympic Stadium , officially Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys [ əsˈtaði uˈlimpik ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs ] ( Catalan for Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium ), formerly the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc , is a football stadium with athletics facility in the Spanish metropolitan area of Barcelona . It is a UEFA category 4 stadium, the highest classification of the European Football Association.

From July 25 to August 9, 1992, the Olympic Stadium hosted the 1992 Olympic Games .

history

The Olympic Stadium was for the Great Exhibition of the Year 1929 ( Exposició Internacional de Barcelona built), together with a large part of the attractions of Montjuic (Barcelona's local mountain). The stadium was intended as the main venue for the 1936 Olympic Games ; however, the games were awarded to the German capital after a runoff election with Berlin . A protest event planned by the Spanish Republic against the Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin (the so-called " People's Olympics ") was to take place between July 19 and July 26, 1936. But because of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , the event was canceled at short notice.

During the 1992 Olympic Games , the stadium was used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as for athletics competitions. At that time the Olympic Stadium had a capacity of 60,000 seats.

After the end of the games in Barcelona, ​​the stadium was once again subjected to extensive modernization, the marathon gate was closed and replaced with additional rows of seats. It now had a capacity of 55,000 seats (excluding seats). Between 1997 and 2009, the stadium was used by the Spanish first division soccer club Espanyol Barcelona (Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona) for its home games, but then the club moved to the newly built Power8 Stadium . In March 2007, the Andorra national team also hosted their European Championship qualifier against England here, as the very small national stadium in Andorra la Vella was not approved by UEFA for this game due to the large number of visitors expected . The match ended 0: 3. Just a year and a half later, the two teams met again in the Olympic Stadium, this time as part of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup . Andorra lost again, but this time only with 0-2.

At the end of July 2010, the 20th European Athletics Championships took place in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. In April 2011 it was used for a quarter-final match in the Heineken Cup , the highest European cup competition in rugby union ; the French teams USA Perpignan and RC Toulon met each other. The World Junior Athletics Championships were held from July 10th to 15th, 2012 in the 1992 Olympic Stadium.

It has not yet been clarified which sporting events will take place in the stadium in the next few years, as an athletics stadium like the Estadi Olímpic offers too few incentives without a full roofing of the seats.

The stadium got its current name in 2001 in memory of Lluís Companys i Jover , the leader of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya , the republican left of Catalonia, who was president of the Generalitat de Catalunya in the 1930s . After conquering Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War in early 1939, he fled into exile in France, where he was arrested by the Gestapo during the German occupation in World War II and extradited to Spain . In 1940 he was executed on the Montjuïc by the Francoist regime after a quick trial .

Concerts

The facility is also popular as a venue for concerts. So occurred u. a. the following artists and groups in the stadium: AC / DC , Bon Jovi , Bruce Springsteen , Coldplay , David Bowie , Guns N 'Roses , Jean Michel Jarre , Madonna , Marilyn Manson , Metallica , Michael Jackson , Pink Floyd , Prince , RBD , The Police , The Prodigy , The Rolling Stones , Tina Turner and U2 .

gallery

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  Insight into the Olympic Stadium (2007)

• 

  Torch for the Olympic flame at the stadium

• 

  The Olympic Stadium after the renovation for the 2010 European Athletics Championships

• 

  Exterior view of the Olympic Stadium (2014)

See also

• List of the largest football stadiums in the world

Web links

Commons : Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• euro.stades.ch: Detailed picture gallery (September 2006) (French)
• welovebarcelona.de: Location on the local mountain Montjuic and video tour

Individual evidence

1. ↑ barcelonaturisme.com: Stadium on the tourism website of the city of Barcelona (English, Spanish, Catalan)