The silence of this space is very different to all the shouting that used to get done many Sunday afternoons in the area. The slight level changes of the garden area no longer see ball dribbling and the middle of the area where kick-off took place is now graveled. The football pitch on Sarrià del Reial Club Deportivo Espanyol is long gone. But if we look closely, we find little details that seem to stop us forgetting the recent footballing past of this space, which has since been landscaped.
History
The area where Reial Club Deportivo Espanyol´s stadium was built was known as Manigua de Can Ràbia. Before the area´s development it formed part of a large green area that went from Turo Park up to the current roadways of Avinguda de Sarria, Ronda General Mitre and Via Augusta. The greenery of the area and abundance of green trees made this place one of the most visited in the city.
In the early twenties (XX) the Can Ràbia estate was acquired by Reial Club Deportivo Espanyol to construct its first football stadium. The stadium took the name of the road linking the town of Sarria to Barcelona. The stadium was inaugurated on the 18th of February, 1923, with a capacity that was smaller than initially planned due to the fact the construction company went bankrupt. So, the stadium could only hold 10,000 spectators and it did not belong to the club. Over the years, Espanyol managed to take ownership of the stadium and was expanding its facilities during the 40s, 50s and 60s. It was in this last decade that Ladislao Kubala and Alfredo Di Stefano played there.
The stadium was one of the sporting venues for the 1982 World Cup with several games played there from the second phase, with some of the best teams like Argentina, Brazil and Italy playing. In 1992 the stadium was also the scene of some of the games played in the Barcelona Olympics.
In the 90s, the club´s debts forced it to develop a real estate project that aimed at clearing its debts and as such it looked for a new space for constructing a stadium. The Sarria stadium saw its last football game on June 21st, 1997. After spending a few seasons playing provisionally in the Olympic Stadium on Montjuïc, the Club opened a new stadium in Cornella-El Prat in 2009.
- Address:
- Ptge Ricard Zamora, 5
- Districte:
- Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
- Neighborhood:
- les Tres Torres
- City:
- Barcelona
Timetable
| Dies | Hores |
|---|---|
| Tots els dies | Horari no definit |
Acces principal passatge de Ricard Zamora. Accés des del la Ronda del General Mitre.