Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos

About

The Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos (Latin American Spanish pronunciation: [esˈtaðjo nasjoˈnal ˈxuljo maɾˈtines ˈpɾaðanos], lit. 'Julio Martínez Prádanos National Stadium') is an association football stadium in Santiago, Chile. Located in the Ñuñoa commune, it is part of the Estadio Nacional Sports Park, a 62 hectare sporting complex which also features tennis courts, an aquatics center, a modern gymnasium, a velodrome, a BMX circuit, and an assistant ground/warmup athletics track. Construction began in February 1937 and the stadium was inaugurated on December 3, 1938. The architecture was based on the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany. The stadium was one of the venues for the FIFA World Cup in 1962, and hosted the final where Brazil defeated Czechoslovakia 3–1. In 1948, the stadium hosted the matches of the South American Championship of Champions, the competition that inspired the creation of the UEFA Champions League and of the Copa Libertadores. The stadium was notoriously used as a mass imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial execution facility by the Pinochet dictatorship following the 1973 military coup. In 2009, a complete modernization plan was unveiled for the stadium and surrounding facilities. President Michelle Bachelet said it would become the most modern stadium in South America. A roof above the stands was initially proposed by Bachelet in order to ma

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