El Clásico 6-2 at Camp Nou (2010)

The iconic home of FC Barcelona, a cathedral of football.

Camp Nou, officially Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship reasons, and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increased seating capacity of 105,000 it will retain its position as the largest stadium in terms of seating capacity in Spain and Europe, as well as the second largest association football stadium, while becoming the fifth-largest overall stadium in the world.

Quick Facts

Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona

Lore & Background

The construction of the Camp Nou started on 28 March 1954 as Barcelona's previous stadium, Camp de Les Corts, had no room for expansion. Although originally planned to be called the Estadi del Barcelona, the more popular name Camp Nou was used. The June 1950 signing of László Kubala provided further impetus to the construction of a larger stadium. On 14 November 1950, the president Agustí Montal i Galobart obtained the favourable agreement of an assembly of members to acquire land for the construction of a new stadium, located in Hospitalet de Llobregat, which was later exchanged with the Barcelona City Council for other land in the neighbourhood of Les Corts.

The appointment of Francesc Miró-Sans as president of Barcelona on 14 November 1953 relaunched the project. The first stone was laid on 28 March 1954; a procession of several thousands of people made the journey from the Camp de Les Corts to La Masia de Can Planes, where the ceremony of laying the first stone was held. The project was completed one year later, when the club entrusted the construction to the building company Ingar SA. The work was supposed to last eight months, but the costs were more than four times higher than expected, reaching 288 million pesetas.

The architects were Francesc Mitjans and Josep Soteras, with the collaboration of Lorenzo García-Barbón. On 24 September 1957, the Camp Nou was inaugurated. A solemn mass presided over by the archbishop preceded the Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah. Some 90,000 people attended the opening ceremony. Like the Santiago Bernabéu of Real Madrid, the stadium was inspired by De Kuip, home of Feyenoord.

Reader's Guide

The stadium's capacity has varied greatly over the years, opening at 106,146, and growing to 121,401 for the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The stadium underwent an expansion in 1982, in anticipation of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, which added boxes, VIP lounges, a new press area, new markers and the construction of the third tier. The expansion added 22,150 new seats, taking the total seating capacity to 71,731, and the standing capacity was expanded by 16,500 to 49,670, taking the total stadium capacity to 121,401.

Barcelona's record attendance was set on 5 March 1986 in the European Cup quarter-final against Juventus in front of 120,000 spectators. The Camp Nou opened the Barcelona club museum in 1984. The stadium was renovated in 1993–94, in which the pitch was lowered by 2.5 metres, the security gap was removed, and standing room was eliminated in favour of individual seating. Although popularly called the Camp Nou, the stadium's official name was actually Estadi del Barcelona since its completion, and it was not until the 2000–01 season that club members voted to officially rename the stadium to its popular nickname.

The facilities now include a memorabilia shop, mini-pitches for training matches and a chapel for the players. The stadium also houses the second-most visited museum in Catalonia, the Barcelona Museum, which receives more than 1.2 million visitors per year.