The Great Strahov Stadium ( cs, Velký strahovský stadion) is a
stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
in the
Strahov district of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
. It was built for displays of
synchronized gymnastics on a massive scale, with a field three times as long as and three times as wide as the standard
Association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
pitch. It has a capacity of 250,000 spectators, of which 56,000 is seating, making it the
largest modern stadium and the second largest sports venue ever built.
the stadium is no longer in use for competitive sports events; it is a training centre for
Sparta Prague, and used to host pop and rock concerts. The stadium is sited on
Petřín Hill overlooking the old city. It can be accessed by taking the
Petřín funicular up the hill through the gardens, or by taking tram lines 22, 23 or 25 to Malovanka station.
Construction
Construction began based on plans by the architect
Alois Dryák, on a wooden stadium in 1926, which was replaced by concrete grandstands in 1932. Further construction occurred in 1948 and 1975. The playing field, surrounded by seating on all sides, is 63,500 square metres.
The stadium currently serves
Sparta Prague as a training centre with 8 football pitches (6 pitches of standard sizes and 2
futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football.
Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...
pitches).
History
The original stadium dates from the
First Republic between the World Wars and served as a venue for popular
Sokol
The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...
displays of massive
synchronized gymnastics. Construction of the first stadium began in 1926 on the current ground plan for the VIII.-Všesokolský slet. The stadium was modernized in 1932 for the IX.-Všesokolský slet. Both of these displays were attended by Czechoslovak President
T. G. Masaryk
T is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet. (For the same letterform in the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, see Te and Tau respectively).
T may also refer to:
Codes and units
* T, Tera- as in one trillion
* T, the symbol for "True" in lo ...
, who had been a member of Sokol since he was thirteen, on his horse Hektor. The largest attendance was recorded in 1938 on the occasion of the jubilee "World anti-war" X.-Všesokolský slet.
A few months after the
end of World War II in Europe, two units of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
played an exhibition game of
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
. On September 28, 1945, a crowd of 40,000 watched soldier-athletes of the
94th Infantry Division In military terms, 94th Division or 94th Infantry Division may refer to:
* 94th Division (People's Republic of China)
* 94th Infantry Division (German Empire)
* 94th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
* 94th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
* 94th Gu ...
defeat a team from the
XXII Corps, by a score of 6–0.
XI.-Všesokolský slet in 1948 was used as a protest against rising
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
. Soon after, the Sokol was dissolved and followed Spartakiades. The Sokol displays were renamed
Spartakiads
The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...
during the
communist era. The Spartakiads also took place in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...
and
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...
.
Performances with several thousand gymnasts making various complex formations, with some performers performing in synchronization while traditional folk music played overhead, attracted the attention of many visitors. Some of the most popular shows were those of young well-trained recruits who wore only
boxer shorts while on the display or women dancing in
miniskirts. The groups of volunteer gymnasts (unlike the soldiers, who were ordered to practice and participate) were put together from top level local athletic association members who regularly trained for the show throughout the year prior to the event. The event was held semi-decadally until 1985.
Motor racing
Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of t ...
also took place in the stadium in the mid-1960s.
The last Spartakiad was held here in 1985. Renewed XII.-Všesokolský slet took place here with the presence of Czech President
Václav Havel in 1994. However, the next Sokol venues took place on the smaller stadiums (
Stadion Evžena Rošického and
Eden Arena). In 1990, Great Strahov Stadium hosted British classic rock group, The
Rolling Stones. The concert had 100,000 spectators, most notably, former President Václav Havel. Since the 90's, the spacious building hosted few events. Weeds and other vegetation grew on the playing surfaces, due to a lack of care. The area was also used for exhibitions and trade fairs, and was also used for exhibition polo games.
At the beginning of the 21st century, there were talks about demolishing the venue. However, those talks have since diminished. In 2003, part of the stadium, with the financial support of the City of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, was reconstructed by
AC Sparta Prague. Eight football fields were built, and it is now used as a training centre for Sparta. In 2014, the complex management of the stadium was resolved and it is now owned by the city of Prague.
The 2019 Apple
iPhone XR "Color Flood" commercial, which featured large numbers of people running in different colored jumpsuits, was filmed at the stadium.
"Apple iPhone XR TV Commercial, 'Color Flood' Song by Cosmo Sheldrake"
iSpot.tv
Concerts
Since 1990, the stadium has been used for rock concerts.
*The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...
– Aug 18, 1990 & Aug 5, 1995 (attendance 100,000 & 127,000 respectively)
* Guns N' Roses – May 20, 1992 (attendance 60,000), with Soundgarden and Faith No More
* Bon Jovi – Sept 4, 1993 (attendance 30,000) with Billy Idol and Little Angels
* Aerosmith – May 27, 1994 (attendance 50,000) with Extreme
* Pink Floyd – Sept 7, 1994 (official attendance 110,000, but eventually another estimated 10,000 people snuck in or pushed into the venue)
*Bratři Nedvědové – June 21, 1996 (attendance 60,000)
* U2 – Aug 14, 1997 (attendance approx. 62 000)
* AC/DC – June 12, 2001 (attendance 25,000), with Rammstein
* Ozzfest – May 30, 2002 (attendance 30,000), with Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
, Tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...
and Slayer
Future of the stadium
In the last decade several studies have looked at adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...
and preservation of this unique structure. There are plans to convert the extremely large Great Strahov stadium complex into a commercial zone complete with hotels, restaurants and shops. Another proposition was to convert the area into a "leisure mecca for the 21st century". There were plans to rebuild the area as an Olympic village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...
if Prague won a future Olympic bid. However, the bid for 2016 was unsuccessful.
See also
* Sport in the Czech Republic
* Stadion Evžena Rošického
References
External links
Photo gallery of the stadium
{{Authority control
Sports venues in Prague
Football venues in Czechoslovakia
Athletics (track and field) venues in Czechoslovakia
Music venues in Prague
Strahov
AC Sparta Prague
Petřín
Prague 6