Barcelona Olympic Stadium

The Barcelona Olympic Stadium or Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc as it is called in its native Catalan was built originally in 1927 for theInternational Exposition which took place in 1929. It was also built in hopes of getting the bid for the 1936 Summer Olympics which ended up going to the city of Berlin in Germany.

Later on, however, Barcelona won the bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics and they started renovations on the old building to suit a more modern day televised sporting event. The Stadium had a capacity of 55,926 which was expanded for the Olympics to over 67,000 in order to meet the demand of the event.

The stadium is situated in Anella Olimpica in Montjuic which is a large hill at the southwest overlooking the harbour. Back in 2001, it was renamed after the former Catalan president who was executed by the Franco regime in 1940 right by the castle.

The stadium was designed by the architect Pere Domènech i Roura originally for the expo in 1929 and was opened on July the 4th of that year. The Bolton Wanderers played a friendly game against the Catalan XI. The People’s Olympiad was meant to be hosted in 1936 which was a protest event against the 1946 Olympics being held in Berlin. This event was canceled when the Spanish Civil War happened.

During the 1950s the stadium was host to the 1955 Mediterranean Games and the National Football Club Final between FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol.

In the 1970s the stadium mostly remained derelict and there was a lot of degradation to the stands and other parts as a result of the lack of maintenance. They started holding high profile car races in Barcelona such as the Spanish Grand Prix and the Montjuic Racing Circuit where the stadium was used by the racing teams. The Formula 1 race was nearly boycotted by the drivers due to concerns over the stadiums safety in 1975.

After Barcelona won the bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics, the Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti helped in the renovations. The core was removed and they left only the outer facades. They also repaired and rebuilt new stands to replace the older unsafe ones.

The Barcelona 1992 Olympics was a monumental success for the stadium which brought it back into frequent use. Many of the Olympians who did well came back and now own Barcelona apartments. The Olympic Stadium is one of the sites to see when visiting Barcelona. Since 1992 weekly rentals in Barcelona have become quite popular. People from all over since then come and look for Barcelona apartments to rent.

For short term rent Barcelona and short term lets Barcelona most people choose the Barcelona apartments for rent agency. Apartment rent Barcelona agencies have sprung up all over and short term rental Barcelona societies and web pages have made Barcelona one of the top destinations in the world. All party thanks to the Olympic Stadium.