BARCELONA, 20 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Palau Blaugrana of FC Barcelona turns 50 this Saturday, October 23, and, despite the fact that in the future ‘Espai Barça’ will have to give rise to the new and modern Palau, it hopes to continue adding titles to the 382 trophies that the professional sections that inhabit it have won so far.
To celebrate its half century of life, the club has prepared for this Saturday a private institutional act to explain the adventures of the basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey teams in those five decades of the Palau Blaugrana, the “multisport essence” of the FC Barcelona.
“To commemorate this anniversary, FC Barcelona will hold a private institutional event on the same day, starting at 10.45 am, which will begin at the Palco del Palau and will end at the Auditori 1899 with an event open to the news media starting at 11:45 am, “explained the club.
The event will have a wide sports and institutional representation, headed by President Joan Laporta and several members of the Board of Directors. They will also be accompanied by relatives of Agustí Montal -president who inaugurated the Palau in 1971-, relatives of the architects Francesc Cavaller and Josep Soteras -creator of the building-, representatives of the teams of the 1971 sections, the year of the inauguration, and representatives of current teams.
Some of the athletes who have their shirts removed at the Palau –Òscar Grau, Xavier O’Callaghan, Enric Masip, Joan Sagalés, David Barrufet, Iñaki Urdangarín, Alberto Borregán, Paco Sedano, Andrés Jiménez, Nacho Solozábal, Roberto Dueñas, Epi and Juan Carlos Navarro – will also attend, plus institutional representatives, sponsors and members of the club’s sports commissions.
In the Palco del Palau area, a commemorative plaque will be discovered and later a family photo will be taken with everyone present on the pavilion court. The event will continue in the Auditorium 1899, where a series of speeches and speeches will take place in which the history of the Palau will be reviewed.
The first stone of the Palau Blaugrana was laid on September 24, 1970 and after just over a year of works it was inaugurated on October 23, 1971 with several matches of the volleyball and handball sections. The cost of the work was 135 million pesetas and its main feature is the large dome, built with precast reinforced concrete and which made the pavilion one of the most modern of the moment.
This celebration will be the starting signal for a year of activities that will serve to enhance this venue in which 382 official titles have been achieved. A Palau that reaches half a century of life and that glimpses a comprehensive reform on the horizon that must become a facility with a capacity for 15,000 spectators, capable of hosting sporting, cultural and social events.