Stadion Dziesięciolecia

Stadion Dziesięciolecia
	Skarb Państwa
Capacity	71,008 (original)
Opened	July 22, 1955
Closed	September 6, 2008
Tenants
	Poland national football team (1955-1983)

Stadion Dziesięciolecia (English: 10th-Anniversary Stadium), opened in 1955, was for decades the largest

Euro 2012

.

History

In 1953 the Association of Polish Architects held an open contest for the project of an "Olympic Stadium for the city of Warsaw". It was won by the team led by

Jerzy Sołtan and later the same year the construction was started. The stadium was constructed mostly with rubble from buildings destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising

of 1944.

The project involved the construction of an open air oval-shaped Olympic stadium: it contains a

football

pitch and a 400-metre racing track. Theoretically, the terraces with wooden benches provided seats for 71,008 people, but during the biggest festivals organised there, it accommodated more than 100,000 spectators. In addition, the stadium was equipped with a practice field, a small sports dome, 900 parking spaces and was surrounded by a park. The stadium was also connected to a nearby bus station and a railway station opened specifically for the transport of spectators.

Soon after its opening, it became Poland's

national stadium. It housed the most important international football matches and athletics competitions, as well as communist party galas, concerts, and commemorative festivals. In addition, it served as the final lap of the Peace Race. In 1968, it was the site of Ryszard Siwiec's self-immolation in protest at the invasion of Czechoslovakia during a propaganda festival

.

In 1983, due to technical problems, the stadium was abandoned. In 1989 it was rented by the City of Warsaw to a company that turned the stadium into an outdoor market known as Jarmark Europa, which soon became Europe's largest open-air market.

zlotys

, which is generally believed to be an underestimate.

The top tier of the market included vendors of clothing, souvenirs, and bootlegged CDs and movies. Police say the market was the main selling point for black market goods in the country. Between 1995 and 2001 more than 25,000 traders were prosecuted, while approximately 10 million infringing CDs and videotapes were confiscated. Amongst the English-speaking community in Warsaw, the stadium was often referred to as the "Russian market".^{[citation needed]}

New National Stadium

Clearing the ground for the construction of the new National Stadium

The old stadium was demolished to prepare for the construction of the new

meeting hall and a metro station "Stadion" on a yet-to-be built subway

line. During the European Championship itself, the following matches are to be played at the stadium: the opening match, group matches, a quarterfinal and a semifinal.

Stadion Dziesięciolecia and its grounds are the property of the Government of Poland, and the City of Warsaw has declared that for this reason, it would be illegal for the city to financially participate in the project, which is to be financed by the national government.

The building of the National Stadium was delayed by disputes with vendors who protested against orders to leave the 10th-Anniversary Stadium.[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Wasilewski, Patrick (2009-05-10). "Soccer-Polish venues on track for Euro 2012, prime minister says". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-05-11.

External links

Jarmark Europa in the Wprost weekly magazine (in Polish)
Finissage of the Stadium - site-specific art projects

52°14′22.10″N 21°2′44.58″E / 52.2394722°N 21.0457167°E / 52.2394722; 21.0457167

[tusk-1] Wasilewski, Patrick (2009-05-10). "Soccer-Polish venues on track for Euro 2012, prime minister says". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-05-11.

History

New National Stadium

See also

References

External links