Stadion Garbarni – stadium description

The stadium on Rydlówka St. became the home of Garbarnia after forced exodus from the beautifully located home ground, just opposite the Wawel Castle. The shift didn’t come soon though, the club was homeless from 1973 to 1990, when they finally managed to open their new stadium on Rydlówka. Much less impressive than the previous one, it was at least located in Garbarnia’s spiritual home area.

Football-layout stands were built as a partly-sunken bowl of 11 rows, shaped to resemble the letter C. The east side was left open, with training field. Together the three sides with terracing were able to hold roughly 5,000 people, but after installation of metal benches on parts of it, capacity fell to some 1,000 seated fans.

Until 2013 the ground had a modest covered section for 100 members of the press and VIPs. That element was torn down to make way for another training field, this time west of the main pitch. Similar fate was made by the sympathetic “club cottage”, which was replaced in 2015-16 by new offices.

When the building was ready, the field was rotated by 90 degrees and old west terrace got demolished. The last remaining piece of the old stadium is the north stand, equipped with almost 1,000 seats. Eventually the stadium should be entirely rebuilt, however the project is carried out in phases to allow constant use and stable financing.