Estádio Municipal de Braga - Braga, Portugal
N 41° 33.911 W 008° 25.940
29T E 547331 N 4601656
Braga Municipal Stadium) is a football stadium in Braga, Portugal, built in 2003 as the new home for local club Sporting Clube de Braga, and as a UEFA Euro 2004 venue. Its architect was Portuguese Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Waymark Code: WMCWJM
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date Posted: 10/19/2011
Views: 7
The stadium was carved from a quarry (Monte Castro) that overlooks the city of Braga. Stands run only along both sides of the pitch. Behind the goal at one end are the rock walls of the quarry and at the other is an open view over the city sprawling in the distance. Each stand is covered with a canopy-style roof, and both are connected to each other across the pitch by dozens of steel strings, a design inspired by ancient South American Inca bridges.
The stadium is often considered one of the most original and beautiful stadia in the world. The Financial Times, in an article about Britain's stadia, refers to AXA as one of the four examples of "beautiful grounds". It states that: "There has been nothing in this country to match the architectural delight of Eduardo Souto de Moura’s stadium for Braga in Portugal, a breathtaking arena carved into the side of a rock face on the site of a former quarry".
In 2006 the stadium won the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award for the best new global design.
Architect: Eduardo Souto de Moura
Prize received: Pritzker Architecture Prize
In what year: 2011
Website about the Architect: [Web Link]
Website about the building: [Web Link]
|
Visit Instructions:
- Please provide a photo you have taken of the architect's work.
- And please write a little about your visit to the site. Tell us what you thought, did you liked it?