Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, Olympic stadium in Barcelona, Spain
The Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium is a large athletics and football stadium on the Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, seating around 55,000 people. Its exterior facade dates from the 1920s and is still intact, while everything inside, including the stands, the track, and the field, was rebuilt from scratch.
The stadium was built in 1929 for an international exhibition held in Barcelona and was intended to show the city's ambitions at the time. It was then extensively rebuilt in the late 1980s to host the 1992 Olympic Games, with only the original outer shell kept.
The stadium takes its name from Lluís Companys, a Catalan political leader who was executed in 1940 after the Spanish Civil War. For many visitors from Catalonia, the name carries a weight that goes beyond sport.
The stadium is open from April through October and closes earlier in colder months, so it is worth checking the season before you go. The wide esplanade around it stays accessible longer and is a good place to walk around and take in the surroundings.
The Olympic flame was lit at the opening ceremony in 1992 by an arrow shot by Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo, who fired a flaming arrow into the cauldron from the field. It is one of the most remembered moments in the history of the Games.
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