Stadion Orła Białego – stadium description

The municipal stadium in Legnica was built soon after WWII, in 1948, when the city was no longer German. Legend has it that there may have been 2, perhaps 3 German tanks burried beneath the field, all of which were previously standing in the nearby park. This seems unlikely to be true despite being quite widespread.

What is true is that the very distinctive semicircular building standing north of the stadium was initially built as a war memorial, comemmorating the citizens of then Leignitz killed in WWI. Following the transition to Poland, the pavilion's colonnade was built-up to create dressing rooms for sportsmen. The monumental character has been preserved, though, as the central cauldron for victims still stands.

First vast reconstruction took place between 1966 and 1969, when U-shaped landfill stands were created on three sides, leaving the north open. With 15 rows of benches the ground was reportedly able to hold some 20,000 people. Once the expansion was done, the building was renamed as Stadion 25-lecia PRL (Stadium of the 25th Anniversary of Polish People's Republic).

In this configuration the stadium saw Miedź Legnica's biggest domestic tryumph, when the 2nd-league team managed to go into the final of the Polish Cup and then win in Warsaw against the favoured Górnik Zabrze. Unfortunately the following season Miedź was unable to play in Europe in Legnica due to the ground not meeting UEFA standards. The game against famous AS Monaco, European Cup Winners' Cup finalists of that year, was thus played in Lubin.

The ground had to wait quite long to actually see changes, but when they happened in 2005-2009, they resulted in a brand new, football-specific stadium. Four new grandstands of reinforced concrete were erected in a seemingly traditional layout, however with a couple quirks. Instead of locating most infrastructure in the main stand, Miedź's offices were built into the south end, while the east stand became the main one rather than the west.

When delivered in 2009, the stadium only had its east side covered but provision for future expansion of the roof was made. That move followed in 2017, when all other sections were fitted with a canopy, while the entire stadium also received membrane covers protecting fans from wind. Earlier in 2013, the building received four independent floodlight masts.