The stadium for which Prague became too small
The road rises up, through the trees of Petřín and quiet residential neighborhoods. Prague gradually stays below – with its towers, red roofs, cobblestone streets, and the ability to look solemn even when three men are smoking by a trash container around the corner and arguing about which beer in the Czech Republic is still unspoiled by tourists.
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Strahov does not appear immediately.
It does not open like the Colosseum, does not rise before your eyes like Camp Nou, and does not try to seduce with a glowing sign.
First, you see concrete. Lots of concrete. Gray, tired, cracked in places. Then another wall of it. Then a corner that seems like it should end, but does not.
You go further and begin to understand that this is not just a building.
It is an entire city district pretending to be a stadium.
There is nothing on the outside of Strahov trying to impress visitors. No glass showcases, no interactive museum, no shop where you could buy a mug with the inscription “I visited the largest stadium in the world.”
Even the stadium gates look as if behind them, at best, there is an old warehouse, and at worst – a government office where no one exactly knows who can let you in, but everyone perfectly knows why you cannot be let in.
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This is very Czech.
Jaroslav Hašek’s Švejk, coming to Strahov, would probably politely greet the guard, state that he is going to military exercises, and somehow end up two hours later on the football field with a mug of beer in his hand.
No one would fully understand who let him in, but everyone would agree that it is too late to throw him out now.
Bigger than common sense
The great Strahov stadium was built in 1926. It was designed by Czech architect Alois Dryák and the first structure was wooden.
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