Estádio do Canindé, Multi-purpose sports venue in Pari District, São Paulo, Brazil.
Estádio do Canindé is a sports stadium in Pari District, São Paulo, Brazil, with a capacity for over 21,000 spectators. The two-tier stand layout includes press rooms, floodlighting towers, and different seating sections around the pitch.
Portuguesa bought the Canindé ground from São Paulo FC in 1956; a training field, hall and dressing rooms stood there, and wooden stands built to meet federation requirements earned it the nickname "Ilha da Madeira". The first official match was played on 11 November 1956, a 3–2 win over a Palmeiras–São Paulo combined team. The concrete stadium was inaugurated as Estádio Independência on 9 January 1972 with Portuguesa 1–3 Benfica, and in 1979 president Manuel Mendes Gregório renamed it after his predecessor Oswaldo Teixeira Duarte.
The stadium's nickname, Ilha da Madeira (Wood Island), comes from the provisional wooden bleachers erected in 1956; it also alludes to the Portuguese island of Madeira. Those wooden stands lasted until 1962. Beyond football, the ground has hosted bingos, religious gatherings, music shows and parties, and its central location near the Marginal Tietê keeps it in demand for events.
The stadium sits on Marginal Tietê at the northern edge of Canindé, next to the club's social and multi-sport complex. Capacity is capped at 21,004, below the 28,500 maximum, and the attendance record of 25,000 dates from December 9, 1998. Floodlights were inaugurated on January 11, 1981, during the Torneio dos Refletores.
During renovation work in 1973, construction workers left a tractor buried beneath the turf after it became impossible to remove it from the site. The vehicle remains underground to this day and has never been excavated since.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,367 contributors worldwide.