Catalonia is a land of sporting tradition with best-in-class facilities which set the standard internationally. They have earned this worldwide reputation due to their quality and because they have hosted major events such as the Olympic Games or sports successes that will live forever in our minds.
Camp Nou, 5-star stadium: Barça’s present stadium replaced the old ground at Les Corts, which, though with a capacity for 48,000 spectators, had become small with the great expectation aroused by the team led by the Hungarian ace Ladislau Kubala.
The architects Francesc Mitjans Miró and Josep Soteras Mauri, with the help of Lorenzo García Barbón, designed the present stadium, which was built between 1955 and 1957 in concrete and iron. With a capacity for 99,354 people, the stadium today is the largest in Europe. In the 1998-99 season, the UEFA recognized the services and operation of Camp Nou and qualified it as a “five-star” stadium. Today, visitors will have a unique opportunity to go on the Camp Nou Experience, a tour of the stadium’s most emblematic places, and accessing the pitch from the changing room tunnel. This offer is completed with the stadium’s terraces and cafeterias with the best cuisine, and with the FCB Megastore, Barça’s largest Nike store!
RCDE Stadium: Officially inaugurated on the 2nd of august 2009, the Stadium RCDE was conceived in 2002, when the club decided to organize an international tender to choose a new setting. The winning project was the one by Mark Fenwick and Esteve Gasulla, who projected a stadium to hold 41,000 spectators between the municipal districts of Cornellà and El Prat de Llobregat. The stadium is conceived as an element of creation of new infrastructures and interrelation among the citizens, following the criteria of new stadiums in Europe, with the inclusion of a recreational centre for all the family and several equipments beyond the sport facilities.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: The stage of the best F1 and World Motorcycling competitions, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 1991 hosted the 35th Spanish F-1 Grand Prix after a 16-year absence in Catalonia. One year later came the World Motorcycling Championship with the European Grand Prix of the time. Since then, the Circuit facilities have received the best pilots of all times and the Circuit has become one of the most modern sports facilities, which each season hosts the main world motor sports events: the F1 Spanish Grand Prix and the Catalan Motorcycle Grand Prix.
One of the circuit’s mainstays is its will to bring the sportspeople together with the motor fans, offering all facilities to turn it into a meeting place where to organise all kinds of events. The Circuit has also become an international benchmark thanks to its capacity to innovate and its commitment to the environment.
The Olympic Ring: Built in 1992 for the Olympic Games, the Olympic Ring today is a reference in the city and for sports tourism. Located in Montjuïc Park, the complex includes installations such as the imposing Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, opened for the Universal Exhibition of 1929, the Palau Sant Jordi and the Bernat Picornell pools. The Olympic Ring also includes the Open Camp, the first theme park in the world devoted to sport, opened in June 2016.
The Olympic Canal of Catalonia: The Olympic Canal was built in Castelldefels, a town to the south of Barcelona, for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games as the centre for the canoeing competitions, and in these years has become a pole of excellence with all services and facilities for elite sportspeople and amateur rowers and canoers. The facilities cover 43 hectares and include a running circuit, fitness area, pool and two waterskiing slaloms.
The Segre Olympic Park: Parc Olímpic del Segre is 200 metres from the historical centre of La Seu d’Urgell and offers rafting, canoeing, hydro speed and open-kayak. The sports canals, with the most advanced technology, are the main features of this park surrounded by nature, and its facilities have become a benchmark and in recent years have hosted international competitions such as the World Slalom Championships in June 2016.
The Sant Cugat High Output Centre (CAR): CAR is another of Catalonia’s milestones of sports excellence, and is where elite sportspeople of different disciplines come to train and to stay in its residence. Future sportspeople are also trained here as they can also receive an academic education in the same centre. Its medical and scientific team is formed by top class professionals to ensure that the sportspeople’s output is optimal..
