Budapest’s Puskás Aréna combines past with present

The new Puskás Arena preserves the memory of its predecessor the Népstadion in its external tribune pylons as well as the concrete used for its construction. The anniversary of the beginning of the Népstadion’s construction also coincides with another important date, the EURO 2020 final.

The best two national teams in Europe will lock horns in the EURO 2020 final at Wembley Stadium in London on 12 July next year, seventy-two years to the day after construction of the Népstadion.

According to the book Volt egyszer egy Népstadion (There once was a Népstadion), the first stone of what would become the home of Hungarian football from 1953 until 2014 was laid by OTSB (National Physical Education and Sports Committee) President Gyula Hegyi in the presence of President Zoltán Tildy at 5pm on Monday 12 July 1948. The 27-hectare site was where the old horseracing course had stood, the land previously being used as a rubbish site and then a sand mine.

Gábor Sinkovics and János Tóth’s work commemorates that the sports stars of the day – such as Olympic champion boxer László Papp and – joined in with the simple workers to help build the arena. Ferenc Puskás, after whom the Népstadion was name in 2002, also chipped in, along with other top-flight footballers, as did many enthusiastic volunteers. It took 150,000 man-hours to construct the Népstadion, using 1,330,000 bricks. The capacity had originally been planned to be 100,000 but was in the end slightly under.