Real Madrid - Stadium (Santiago Bernabéu) Poster

The Real Madrid stadium is more commonly known by the name of its founder, Santiago Bernabeu, and is used to host Real Madrid´s 1st team matches and the occasional concert.  Located in the Northern centre of the city on the side of the main North - South Paseo de la Castellana.

While the site has been used for football since 1902 it was only when Santiago Bernabeu took over the club presidency that the present day Real Madrid stadium came into being.  

The 1947 stadium, and indeed its evolution to what we see today, was down to the then forward thinking of Santiago Bernabeu. He saw a Madrid public that had suffered through the Spanish civil war and wanted to give the city something to cheer as well as a monument to the city´s greatness. His plan was for a two tier stadium of 55,000 capacity which many thought to be excessive and way ahead of anything else in Spain at that time. Santiago believed correctly that if a stadium of such size was built people would come just to see the stadium and would want to be associated with it. Thus when 10 year guaranteed seats and or terrace entrances went on sale the 1st "bond" scheme entered into football history.

So as not to impact on the then neighbouring residential community the 1st tier of the Real Madrid stadium was excavated below ground level. This being the case the exterior superfiche still astounds many 1st time visitors who cannot believe the stadium capacity when viewing from the outside.  Full seating capacity now reaches 80,000.