The most important of Braga’s many hills is the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and place of pilgrimage for Christians who climb the white and gold zig-zag stairs to its gates.
Six kilometers to the west, planted on Monte do Castro like a piece of Lego, sits another monument that is equally out of place but completely natural in a way that suggests the divine played a role here as well.
But SC Braga’s Municipal Stadium is designed, engineered and built by man — and on Tuesday, it will host one of the world’s greatest club sides, Real Madrid.
Braga will be the 152nd different club Real have played against in 68 years of continental football, but the 14-time European champions have never played in a stadium with a backdrop like this.
At the end of the winding roads that lead to the highest point in the Dume area, right next to an old quarry lies a stadium that seems to defy logic.
A stand with foundations built on a rock; a giant scoreboard resting on a granite embankment behind a goal; and nothing but empty space behind one, offering a sweeping view of the city below.
Braga’s incredible stadium overlooking the valley (Octavio Passos – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Known as ‘A Pedreira’ (The Quarry), the stadium might not be notable if it weren’t for the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, whose creation was awarded the Pritzker Award in 2011, considered the Nobel Prize of architecture.
“Being an architect is not an easy life, and to get international recognition for a small country like Portugal… I will not pretend that I suffer from false modesty,” said Souto de Moura The Athletic.
“The Braga stadium might be the most difficult project I’ve done. And maybe for that very reason, the one I’ve enjoyed the most.”
Souto de Moura was not the architect who originally gave the reins for the project in 2000. The vice-president of Braga City Council approached Norman Foster, the mastermind behind the Gherkin building in London and the glass dome of the Reichstag in Berlin, but he was too expensive.
They called to ask if he could put them in touch with Santiago Calatrava, the architect who designed New York’s World Trade Center Oculus. He informed the council that they were likely to face a similar problem.
Sensing an opportunity, he agreed to a meeting the next day to discuss the brief where it was decided that the capacity should be 30,000.
“They found a plot of land for a stadium, in a valley with a waterway. They thought the stands could follow the curves of the valley. I visited and I liked it,” said Souto de Moura.
“I still have the photos I took then. Above ground is this old quarry. I began to see the stadium below, surrounded by rock. I told the council I wanted to build it there with a 15,000-capacity stand carved into the rock and then do the same on the other side.
(Eduardo Souto de Moura)
“There will be only two stands and people can have a good view of the game. One thing I realized while designing the stadium is that every stadium is now a TV studio.
“That’s why I designed the lighting almost vertically above the pitch (they shine down from the ends of both stands), and as close as possible. I’m no football expert but it’s kind of of the theater, with actors on both sides.
Making his sketches a reality required innovation, thorough experimentation and years of safety testing — all while having to stay within budget and a three-year build time.
Two of Eduardo Souto de Moura’s original sketches (Eduardo Souto de Moura)
The main ambition is to integrate the stadium into the environment, therefore trusses, poles and cables cannot be part of the aesthetic as they are in most football stadiums.
The west stand is carved out of a granite massif, to give the effect of a Greek amphitheater. This involved 1,700,000 cubic meters of hard rock and gravel being excavated before 18 one meter thick uprights were held in place by anchors.
Excavation site (Eduardo Souto de Moura)
Inspired by the Incan bridges and the roof of Washington Dulles Airport in developing his vision for a cover over the pitch, it was the experience of working with Alvaro Siza Vieira to create the Portugal Pavilion at Expo ’98 World Fair that he leaned on the most.
“It’s a big open space under a concrete cover. I realized that it’s possible to cover a structure without using glass or anything else,” said Souto de Moura.
“But UEFA said that there has to be natural light, and the stadium has to be ventilated so that the lid doesn’t close completely. I tried to make small adjustments to allow light to come in from above, using the holes in the cover, but the sun would have come in and made circles of light on the pitch.
“I gave up on that idea and thought of leaving a rectangular opening exactly the same size as the pitch’s proportions.”
A colleague traveled to UEFA headquarters in Switzerland and received approval for his plan to have two concrete slabs covering each stand, connected and held together by a network of 25-meter-long steel cables extending across the pitch. Each is connected to girders, which are attached to the stone of the quarry.
(Octavio Passos – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
It was a huge task to achieve the right balance of forces without columns supporting the roof – which is a cantilever supported only by the west stand with cables anchored to the rock. Two large beams at the top of both stands add support but it took computer simulations and small model tests in a wind tunnel before it could be safely erected.
The stadium was successfully completed in time for Euro 2004, a home tournament where Portugal lost to Greece in the final.
However, Braga still regularly fills half of the arena, which is owned by the city council, and Ricardo Rio, mayor of Braga and president of the city council, confirmed that the stadium was for sale earlier this month.
Estadio 1 de Maio was Braga’s long-term home from 1921 to 2003. They pay just €500 (£435; $533) per month to rent their current stadium and, with the improvements needed to modernize the facilities, the council cuts ties.
“The dialogue has opened, therefore we will formally make an assessment of the value at which the stadium can be sold. It only makes sense that the stadium will be used by Braga,” said Rio.
View from the stands (Octavio Passos – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
“I did not intend to ask for the €200million invested in this facility, but, obviously, an amount that allows the City Council to be paid and, for example, to make other projects viable, including the rehabilitation of Estadio 1 de Maio, who after these years of abandonment, suffered a very rapid deterioration.”
There has been talk in recent years that Braga could build a new stadium on the old site, a thought that saddens Souto de Moura more than changing his unique creation.
“Portugal is one of the hosts of the World Cup 2030, and to be eligible for the knockout games you need a stadium with 60,000 seats” he said. “Braga only has 30,000. When it was built, Braga usually finished in the bottom half of the table, often in danger of relegation; now they are near the top, so people are now demanding more from the club.
“If it’s the other way around and the stadium is too big, people will complain too. It’s a risk of the profession.”
Until 2013, Braga had won just one major trophy — the 1966 Portuguese League Cup. Since then, they have cemented their profile as the fourth best team in Portugal, winning four domestic cups and establishing themselves in Europe, reaching the 2011 Europa League final and qualifying for the Champions League group stage for the third time this season.
In keeping with their growing ambitions, Braga is about to complete theirs The ‘Sports City’ project, first set in 2017, with a new women’s arena that complements the extensive academy building and pitches above the Municipal Stadium.
It has been home for Braga as they have grown into one of the big boys of Portuguese football — and are now 22 percent owned by Paris Saint-Germain owners Qatar Sports Investments.
It’s not on the grand scale of the Bernabeu but in a world of glass and stainless steel, this cliffside concrete amphitheater is as much a work of art as a football stadium.
(Top photo: Diogo Cardoso/Getty Images)
