Barcelona, Spain
96 336
Camp de Les Corts or simply Les Corts, was the second home stadium of FC Barcelona. It served the club from 1922 until the club moved to Camp Nou in 1957. This was a magnificent stadium with an initial capacity of 20,000 seats, later tripled to 60,000 seats.
Les Corts replaced the Camp del carrer Indústria as the home of FC Barcelona, because this ground was too small for the increasing number of Barcelona socios attracted by the club's successes. On 20th May 1922 was the inauguration of the new Les Corts ground, which soon became known as 'the cathedral of football'.
Over the time the stadium has passed through very difficult periods. On 24 June 1925, Les Corts became the centre in the ongoing battle between the central Spanish authorities and the Catalan people. The context was a match that Barcelona had organised in homage to Catalan organisation Orfeón Catalán. Initially the authorities had refused to grant permission for the match, but caved after a large crowd showed up anyway. Nevertheless, as soon as the Spanish national anthem was played the crowd started booing and whistling. The Spanish authorities decided to close the stadium down for a period of six months, later reduced to three.
Les Corts was the home of FC Barcelona during two of its most successful epochs. During the 1920s the club dominated the Campionat de Catalunya and at that time was one of the top clubs in Spain. The club built on this success and also won the first ever La Liga.
Later the club enjoyed another golden age, when the team won numerous trophies. During the 1940s FC Barcelona had outgrown Les Corts. The stadium, again, soon turned out to be too small and plans were made to build a new stadium, the Camp Nou.
Barcelona intended to sell the land of Les Corts, but as it was classified as a private green, it first needed a rezoning. It took the club eight years to convince the reluctant local government to do this, but demolition of the stadium finally happened in 1966.
Les Corts was located close to the present-day Camp Nou, just over a kilometre west. Nowadays a local park named Parc de Les Corts sits on the site where once stood the stadium.
As one of the most famous grounds, Camp de Les Corts is a legend in itself and a proud achievement of Barcelona city.
