Legends of FC Barcelona prayed here before stepping out onto the pitch, and John Paul II visited it after the Mass which still holds the record for attendance at Camp Nou. The small chapel, once a club storage room, will return to its place with the completion of work on the stadium.

An accident, a storeroom and two candelabra

September 24, 1957. The inauguration ceremony of Camp Nou. Before the match against the Warsaw team, which will end in a 4:2 victory for the Blaugrana, Bishop Narcís Jubany celebrates a Mass in the presence of a statue of the Virgin of Montserrat. After the ceremony, several people carry the statue to a small room in the stadium.

A few months later, two of the men who carried the Virgin are involved in a serious car accident. As recounted years later for Sport by Joan Rovira, secretary of the association of former FC Barcelona (ABJ) players, the two promise to make a thanksgiving offering if they come out of the hospital alive. In this way, they offer the statue two candelabras.

As it turns out, however, instead of a chapel, the room has been turned into… a storeroom. On the initiative of Penya Soler, Barcelona's first supporters' association, and with the club's approval, Joan Rovira transforms the dark room into a small chapel. Located in the players' tunnel, it will survive, with changes, until the ongoing reconstruction.

Government, club and church officials on the Camp Nou pitch during the inauguration of the stadium.

Papal visit, record attendance and the holy socio

Over the years, the chapel gains new decorations thanks to the ABJ members. Before the start of the season, inauguration masses are held here with the participation of the entire team - a tradition that will disappear in the second decade of the 21st century - and in November a ceremony in the memory of deceased players. In 1972, the only lying in repose occurs at the chapel, when crowds come to the stadium to bid farewell to player, coach and club activist Josep Samitier.

A plaque commemorating John Paul II's visit to Barcelona in 1982 is also placed on the chapel’s wall. The solemn Mass at Camp Nou celebrated by the Pope, despite a heavy rain, gathers 120,000 people, a number to this day is considered a record for attendance at the stadium ex aequo with the match against Juventus in the 1986 quarterfinals of the European Cup. After the mass, the pope comes down to the chapel to bless the statue of the Virgin Mary, and as a gesture of gratitude, club president Josep Lluís Núñez gives him a socio carnet with the number 108,000, which years later will make John Paul II the only Barcelona socio to be declared a saint.

The chapel at Camp Nou can accommodate no more than 40 people.

Redevelopment, silence and return to Camp Nou

In May 2023, a last mass is held at the chapel, after which the statue is brought out so that work on the new Camp Nou can include this part of the stadium. Although the club promises that there will be a place for the shrine at the new facility, the topic doesn’t come up again and there is no information as to where it will be placed.

It was only last week that the club sent a statement to the press regarding the Marxa Culer, a sort of pilgrimage by Blaugrana fans from the sports city to the abbey in Montserrat. It included a mention of the statue of the Virgin of Montserrat and an assurance that the chapel will return to its place with the completion of work at Camp Nou.