Maracanã

Built for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, Maracanã opened on 16 June 1950 and immediately became more than a football stadium. Designed on a monumental scale, it was built to present Brazil to the world as a footballing nation and was, for decades, one of the largest stadiums on Earth. It was built to hold around 150,000 spectators, making it one of the largest stadiums in the world.

Just weeks after its opening, Maracanã hosted the decisive match of the 1950 World Cup. Brazil lost 2–1 to Uruguay in front of a crowd officially recorded at 173,850, in a match that became known as the Maracanazo, one of the most famous defeats in football history.

But the stadium's story was never only about Brazil's national team. It became the great stage of Rio de Janeiro's club football, particularly for Flamengo and Fluminense. Fluminense played more than 1,600 matches there and has celebrated dozens of major titles at the stadium, while Flamengo has also made Maracanã central to its identity.

Over the decades, Maracanã hosted World Cup matches in 1950 and 2014, including both finals, as well as the 2013 Confederations Cup final, the 1989 and 2019 Copa América tournaments and football events during the 2016 Olympic Games.

The stadium was extensively modernised for the 2014 World Cup. Its original monumental structure and familiar façade remain, but the capacity was reduced dramatically from the enormous crowds of its early years. Today, Maracanã holds 78,838 spectators.

Maracanã is not simply a stadium. It is one of the places where the mythology of Brazilian football was built.