Every year, more than 1,200,000 people make a pilgrimage to the home of FC Barcelona, not to see Samuel Eto or Thierry Henry play, but to take a tour of the stadium and visit the club’s museum, which is situated in the grandstand.
FC Barcelona’s slogan is ‘More than a Club’, and this philosophy is borne out by the museum, which provides information on the cultural and social activities of the club, as well as the team’s many achievements on the pitch.
The displays, which include trophies, photographs and programmes, chart how the club has grown since it was founded back in 1899. There are also posters by famous Catalan artists including Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies, as well as original artworks by Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, and sculptures of some of the club’s leading players.
To really get the feel of Camp Nou, however, fans will want to follow the guided tour, which takes in the presidential box, press area and locker rooms. Just like the players themselves, you can walk through the tunnels and out onto the pitch.
The club’s steady growth in the first half of the 20th century meant that it needed a bigger stadium to accommodate its thousands of fanatical supporters. The Camp Nou was built in 1957, and was extended for the 1982 World Cup. That same year, a crowd of 120,000 packed into the ground to see Pope John Paul II celebrate a mass. To commemorate his visit, the Pope was given a club membership card.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the club announced that Sir Norman Foster, one of the most renowned architects in the world, has designed a scheme to extend the stadium. Inspired by Antoni Gaudí, who created Barcelona’s most symbolic buildings, the project will encase the stadium in a mosaic composed of small ceramic fragments in blue and maroon – the FC Barcelona colours – and red and yellow – the colours of the Catalan flag. Work will begin in 2009 and is scheduled to take two years. Although the construction work will carry on throughout the football season, there will be no disruption to matches.
The museum is marking the 50th anniversary with a new exhibition, “50 Years of the Blaugrana Beat”, about the development of the stadium and key events in its history. Perhaps the most exciting part is Camp Nou Live, a virtual experience where you feel you are actually in the packed stadium, listening to the roar of the fans and smelling the grass on the pitch.
