Stadion Cracovii – historical stadium description

First, single-tiered wooden stands were erected in 1912 after half a year construction work. Financed by the club, but not on a ground owned by Cracovia – the terrain was leased from nearby Norbertan Sisters’ Order. On March 31^st 1912 first game was played against Pogon Lviv, Poland’s oldest team back in the days.

At that time the ground was equipped with an athletics track and this is what was left after Russian army came to Krakow during WWI in 1914. Wood from the stands was supposedly used to supply resources to the army. New terracing was built in a few months and more changes came in 1925-1926. First stands were modified, then flooded in 1925 and then athletics track scrapped for a cycling track.

Not only flooding came as a natural disaster at Kaluzy St. In 1935 a hurricane torn off the main stand’s cover. Then in 1963 unknown perpetrators set fire to the stands which burnt down immediately. Another rebuilding took 3 years (1966) and redeveloping the cycling track another 3 years. Between the hurricane and fire a Nazi bomb landed in the stadium, destroying it partly back in 1939.

Though stands were redeveloped numerous times and the pitch was also moved slightly, this ground remains the oldest to be used in professional football in Poland. Current structure was built in 2010 along Polish-Spanish group Estudio Lamela’s design.