Barcelona creates a 26,000-place memorial at Camp Nou

Barcelona has opened a memorial inside Camp Nou, where fans can place urns containing the ashes of deceased relatives. The dedicated space is part of the stadium’s modernization project.

The memorial will have 26,000 places. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the reservation price depends on the length of use: a place for 10 years costs 2,490 euros, while one for 50 years costs 6,000 euros. An annual maintenance fee of 70 euros will also be charged.

A permanent reservation costs 10,000 euros. A memorial plaque is available for an additional fee of 490 euros. So far, more than 1,000 fans have secured a place in the memorial.

During the presentation of the project, the club’s vice president for institutional affairs spoke about her grandfather’s wish to rest near Barcelona’s stadium. “When he died many years ago, he said that the only thing he wanted was to be buried near Barça’s stadium, so that he could hear the goals even in the afterlife. Many fans dream of the same thing,” she said.

The project includes four large, illuminated square structures. The plaques will be placed on a glass wall with LED lighting, while the urns will be kept behind a mural dedicated to the most important moments in the club’s history.

Construction is expected to begin at the end of next year. Barcelona announced that the money raised from reservations will help cover part of the costs of renovating Camp Nou.

The stadium, built in 1957, is undergoing a major transformation. In 2023, Barcelona began work to increase its capacity from 99,354 to 105,000 places, with the aim of making Camp Nou one of the largest football stadiums in the world.

The renovation cost, initially estimated at 900 million euros, has now risen to around 2 billion euros.