1957
Camp Nou opens
FC Barcelona inaugurated its new stadium before about 90,000 people, opening what became the largest football ground in Europe.
On September 24, 1957, the feast of La Mercè, FC Barcelona opened its new stadium. The day began with a solemn mass led by the archbishop, followed by the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Officials of the Franco regime and the city filled the presidential box, and some 90,000 spectators watched football clubs from across Catalonia parade on the field alongside the club’s own teams and supporters’ groups.
The club needed the space. Its previous ground, Camp de Les Corts, could not grow, and the 1950 signing of László Kubala, later counted among the club’s greatest players, had made demand for seats even stronger. Members approved buying land in 1950, and president Francesc Miró-Sans revived the project after his election in 1953. The first stone was laid on March 28, 1954, after a procession of thousands from the old ground. Construction was expected to take eight months, but costs rose to more than four times the estimate, reaching 288 million pesetas, and the club borrowed heavily for years. Architects Francesc Mitjans and Josep Soteras designed a bowl with continuous stands and no open corners, inspired by Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium.
The new ground opened with a capacity of 106,146. Many expected it to bear the name of club founder Joan Gamper, but the Franco authorities refused, so it opened without an official name. Supporters simply called it Camp Nou, Catalan for “new ground”, and the name stuck long before the club made it official in 2001.
Why it matters
Camp Nou became the largest stadium in Europe and one of the great stages of world football. It hosted the opening match of the 1982 World Cup, the European Cup finals of 1989 and 1999, and the football final of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Its record attendance for a Barcelona match, 120,000, came against Juventus in 1986.
Beyond sport, it gave the city a vast gathering place. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there in 1982, and artists from Bruce Springsteen to the Three Tenors have performed there. The stadium’s museum is the second most visited in Catalonia, with more than 1.2 million visitors a year.
Did you know?
When members voted on an official name in 1965, “Camp Nou” finished third, behind a purely descriptive name and “Estadio Barça”. Fans kept using it anyway.
