The National Stadium - The Visionary Project that Shaped Sport in Portugal
Story about the innovative project that revolutionized sport in Portugal, making the National Stadium a symbol of sporting and cultural development.
Article by Salazar Carreira em Illustration, December 1931. (1931)National Sports Museum - IPDJ
The dream of a great stadium
Since the late 1920s, the need for a stadium had been discussed in the sporting environment. It not only to suppress national shortages in terms of sports facilities but also as a means of international promotion.
Parade of Sports Clubs in Terreiro do Paço, December 3, 1933 (1933) by Nunes d’AlmeidaNational Sports Museum - IPDJ
First Congress of Sports Clubs
Organized in 1933 by the newspaper Os Sports with the collaboration of Salazar Carreira (one of the regime's main indoctrinators)...
It brought together communities from across the country to discuss the situation in sport and define measures to be requested from public authorities, including the request to build a large stadium in Lisbon.
Parade of Sports Clubs in Terreiro do Paço, December 3, 1933 (1933) by Nunes d’AlmeidaNational Sports Museum - IPDJ
On December 3, 1933, at the end of the First Congress of Sports Clubs, a parade of hundreds of athletes went to Terreiro do Paço to ask the President of the Council, Oliveira Salazar, to build a stadium.
Salazar, assuming the need to change the situation in sport, promised the much-desired National Stadium.
Tourist brochure for Estoril, Costa do Sol. Col. Particular Norberto SantosNational Sports Museum - IPDJ
The choice of site for the construction of the Stadium
...emerged in the framework of an urbanistic strategy - the Sun Coast Urbanization Plan (PUCS) - which privileged Lisbon to the west, considering the tourist and leisure valence of the coastal range between Lisbon and Cascais.
Appearance of Vale do Jamor (1939)National Sports Museum - IPDJ
The Jamor Valley
...was the location chosen for the construction of the National Stadium. Crossed by the stream with that name, the area was predominantly agricultural, characterized by orchards and cultivation land compartmentalized by tree hedges, and farms.
At the time, there were strong criticisms of the location chosen, because there were no access and the distance of about 10 km from the city center of Lisbon made it virtually impossible for their regular attendance by athletes in training.
Article by Salazar Carreira in Ilustração magazine, 1-11-1935 (1935)National Sports Museum - IPDJ
«We think it's great that the Costa do Sol tourist area is valued (...) but the Stadium is not built for foreigners living in Estoris...»
The contest
The contest for the National Stadium was published on March 1, 1934. The first phase of the contest consisted of submitting a General Plan indicating the stadium's circulation routes, accesses, and elevations.
The participants in the first phase of the contest were architects Carlos Ramos, Luis Cristino of Silva and Insured George.
The proposed solutions showed rigid formalism and were not sensitive to the natural topography of the Jamor valley terrain. All deployed sports equipment in full water line and flood bed.
Model (detail). Historical reconstruction of the Jamor Sports Complex area, before the construction of the National Stadium. Scale 1/2,000 (1989)National Sports Museum - IPDJ
All of them implemented the sports equipment in the middle of the waterline and floodplain.
Because none of the projects were in a position to satisfyingly respond to all the impositions of the program, it was agreed to create a constituency joint solution of the proposals of Insured George and Antonio Varela and Carlos Ramos.
But also the General Plan sketched by Insured George would be dropped later.
Francisco Caldeira Cabral (1908-1992)
In 1937, the project is delivered to Francisco Cabina Cabral, agronomous engineer studying landscape architecture in Berlin, and Konrad Wiesner.
Sketch of Cabral and Wiesner's general plan. Source: Teresa Andresen, Francisco Caldeira Cabral, LDT Monographs 2001, p.76. (1939)National Sports Museum - IPDJ
In 1937, the project is delivered to Francisco Cabina Cabral, agronomous engineer studying landscape architecture in Berlin, and Konrad Wiesner.
The proposal of Cabral , to remove the stadium from the valley and put it on the hillside, was the solution that gave the 1939 General Plan the form.
The 1939 General Plan
In addition to the soccer and athletics stadium, the National Stadium park, with about 220 acres, provided for facilities for various sports sports: pools, tennis center, racecourse and diverse training camps.
Tribune of honor. Project by architect Miguel Jacobetty and engineer Sena Lino (1944) by Horácio NovaisNational Sports Museum - IPDJ
Miguel Jacobetty Rosa (1901-1970)
In 1939, Cabral was removed from the project, leaving Miguel Jacobetty as the most relevant designer architect in the National Stadium, signing most of the National Stadium projects and buildings.
The PUCS envisaged new roads - the Estrada Marginal along the Costa do Sol and the first Portuguese Motorway, starting at the Duarte Pacheco viaduct. In 1939, construction began.
Continue your visit
You have finished the visit to the 1st part of the exhibition. Visit the following Part 2: “The National Stadium: to Building”
Know also:
Jamor Pools
The Memory of the Railway Station of the National Stadium
“The National Stadium: Part I - of the project” Exhibition
Version 2024
Curator, Coordination and Content: National Museum of Sports
Image Sources:
National Sport Museum/IPDJ Collection
Jamor National Sports Center Archive
Calouste Art Library Gulbenkian
