Estádio dos Barreiros

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Estádio dos Barreiros
Full name	Estádio dos Barreiros
Nickname	O Caldeirão (The Cauldron)
Built	1927
Opened	1957
Capacity	9,177
Home of	CS Marítimo União da Madeira
Pitch size	105 x 65 metres

Estadio dos Barreiros is a multi-use stadium in Funchal, Portugal. It is currently used mostly for football matches. It is the home stadium of CS Marítimo and União da Madeira. Although much larger in its hey-day, the stadium is now able to hold just 9,177 people, and was first built in 1927.

The stadium itself is rather unique in design and shape. Built into a Funchal hillside, the stadium consists of two 'banana-shaped' stands that stretch the entire length of the field and curve around most of the running rack, but not entirely. The two stands are both all seated with the Eastern stand being totally uncovered and sufficiently smaller than the main Western stand (Pictured). Because it has been built into the ground, the top of the main stand, complete with its roof is actually only at street level, which require walking down several stairways to reach the top of the stand from the main road.

[edit] History

Football has been played on the site of the stadium since 1927, when it was known as the Campo dos Barreiros. The field was used by one of the Funchal's major football teams, Nacional Madeira as their home ground. However the need for a major sports venue in the city grew, and the land was soon purchased by the regional government so that a multi-purpose stadium could be built on the site.

The stadium opened officially on in May, 1957, complete with an athletics running track, football field and spectator stands. The landmark stadium provided a capacity for up to 30,000 people, and Nacional Madeira were soon joined by the region's most successful and popular sports club, CS Marítimo. Marítimo's move away from their old Campo do Almirante Reis ground began a long groundshare with Nacional and also União da Madeira, the city's third biggest sports club.

The stadium was home to Madeira’s top three football clubs for many years, and this showed on the poor quality of the pitch, which couldn’t handle three matches a week. During the late 1990’s Nacional Madeira moved out, and into their own new stadium, the Estádio Eng. Rui Alves, located in the Choupana district of Funchal.

Built into one of Funchal's many hillsides, the stadium offers outstanding views of the bay, city and the rising Madeiran mountain's. Although it has had several facelifts over the years, the unique stadium has remained true to its original structure, with seating and new floodlights the only major evolutions on the site. The ageing stadium is known as the ‘Caldeirão’ (Cauldron) throughout Portugal, because of its famous uncomfortable and hostile atmosphere, the stadium has become a fortress for Marítimo, with many big teams struggling to win any points on their visits, notably Benfica who famously took 10 years to secure a win at the stadium, ending the ‘curse’ in 2003.

With the unveiling of Marítimo's new state-of-the-art stadium, it would seem that the stadium's days as major football venue are numbered with only minnows União da Madeira soon to be claiming it all theirs.