July 29, 2010

The Olympic Stadium Of Montjuic

With the enormous urban operation that the global Exposition of Barcelona 1929 represented, the Council made a decision to build a great sporting location for the city which would add weight in convincing the global Olympic board and, particularly, Baron Pierre de Coubertin that Barcelona planned to organise, with well set up hopes, the olympic games. Thus the Stadium of Montjuic was born. After years of neglect and refuse the stadium was redecorated to become the core of the olympic games in 1992. Thousands of athletes from each part of the World landed in the Aeroport Barcelone and provided a huge show in the Olympic Stadium.

In the eighties the organizing Committee of Barcelona 92 held an international architecture competition to undertake the task of rebuilding the stadium. The firm of designers Correa-Mil-Margarit-Buixad was chosen to design the management plan for Montjuc, including the restoration of the stadium. The Italian designer, Vittorio Gregotti, also worked next to the Catalan architects.

Montjuic was totally stripped and the key facade was the sole part of the stadium to get left intact. The capacity was increased to 45,000 and the area round the stadium was made into a ring full of sporting attractions that made the Olympics of Barcelona so successful.
The cost of the work reached 8,500 million pesetas at the time, with the stadium being supplied with the most modern fittings available, which can accommodate any type of world athletics competition or other events.

Currently the Olympic Stadium of Montjuic, whose official title is the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium of Montjuc, is a modern stadium in full use which is considered a five star stadium by the Union of EU soccer Associations ( UEFA ). Only 2 other stadiums in Spain have this ranking : Vicente Caldern and Camp Nou, the official stadium of the FC Barcelona which attracts each year thousands of tourists who make a long Voyage Barcelone in order to see it.

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