Estadio Nacional de Chile

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Estadio Nacional de Chile
El Nacional

Location	Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Broke ground	1937-1938
Opened	1938
Owner
Tenants
Chile national football team Universidad de Chile
Capacity
66,650
Dimensions
105 m x 68 m

The Estadio Nacional de Chile is the national stadium of Chile. It is located in the comuna (municipality) of Ñuñoa in Santiago. It is the largest stadium in Chile with an official capacity of 66,650, and is part of a large sporting complex which also features a baseball field, tennis courts, swimming pools, and a modern gymnasium.

Construction began in February 1937 and the stadium was inaugurated on 3 December 1938. The architecture was based on the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany. The stadium became infamous after it was used as a concentration camp by the military regime following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état.

1 History
2 Use as concentration camp
3 External links
4 References

[edit] History

Panoramic view of the Chilean National Stadium

It is used mostly for football matches and was one of the four venues of the 1962 FIFA World Cup, hosting the opening game, a quarter final, a semi final, the third-place match, and the final. As such, it was the scene of the Chile national team's greatest-ever accomplishment, the 1-0 victory over Yugoslavia for third place on 16 June 1962. Today, the Estadio Nacional serves as the home field for both the national team and first-division club Universidad de Chile. It also holds some big non-sporting events such as political celebrations or charity spectacles.

[edit] Use as concentration camp

The Estadio Nacional was used during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état as a concentration camp holding 40,000 prisoners, between September and November of that year. The field and gallery were used to hold male prisoners, while female prisoners were held in the swimming pool changing rooms and associated buildings. Locker rooms and corridors were used to torture and murder prisoners^{[citation needed]}, while interrogations were carried out in the velodrome.

It is sometimes mistakenly believed that Chilean folk singer and political activist Víctor Jara was murdered at Estadio Nacional. He was actually murdered at the Estadio Chile, which was renamed in his honor in 2003^[1].

The documentary film, Estadio Nacional, was based on the stadium and its use as a concentration camp.