Vila Belmiro Stadium world famous home of FC Santos
[photo=1524.jpg id=92 align=right]Following its foundation in 1912 the Santos trained in a field located in Manoel Tourinho Street. Due to the clubs pitch not conforming to the minimum official dimensions the games were held in a field off the Avenue Ana Coast, on the land where later the Heart of the Maria Church was built in Mathias Village.
The field was loaned by its proprietor and was used for some of the other cities teams. In 1915 the situation became impossible compelling the club to refuse teams already well known at the time from visiting. These were Cristóvão, of Rio De Janeiro, Argentinian clubs the Wanderes Alumny.
To resolve the problem the Santos owners began looking for alternative venues in the City. On the 31st of May 1916 a general meeting of the owners approved the purchase of an area of 16.500 square meters, in the Vila Belmiro, with the entrance from ruas Abolição now known as Isabel Princess, Guarani now Jose de Alencar, Tiradentes and Dom Peter I. On the 12th of October of that year the inauguration of Vila Belmiro took place.
The first game took place 10 days later against Ipiranga, for the São Paulo Championship. Santos won 2 – 1, Adolph Millon Jr being the scorer of the first amongst the thousands of goals that were to be scored on the magical pitch and that, would become a sacred temple for world-wide soccer.
ILLUMINATION
Santos could have been the first club in the world to possess a covered stadium; the proposal that was presented in 1924 could have been economically possible. The idea was to have artificial lighting, so that night games could be played. The fruition of the scheme was only reached in 1931. On 21st of March that year, at 20:00 hours, the lights of the Santos pitch were lit. To mark the occasion Santos faced a team of the City of Santos and were defeated 1 – 0. The honor of lighting the stadium fell to Manoel Cross, of the Portuguese Athletical Association.
[photo=1525.jpg id=92 align=left]Soon after the final of the São Paulo Championship of 1996, Santos Soccer Club took an important decision: the pitch of the Vila Belmiro, which was heavily criticized, was to have a major renovation. A modern system of draining and controlled irrigation by computer was installed, providing perfect conditions for games played at any time. Today, the field of the Urbano Caldeira Stadium is praised by players, managers and journalists as one of the best in Brazil.
The inauguration took place on the 27 of March 1997, when Santos beat Internacional of Porto Alegre, in a game for the Copa do Brazil. In addition to the refurbishment of the pitch, the seating ring was constructed behind the goal deep in the stadium, a dream the Santista family has had for more than 30 years. Besides increasing the capacity of the stadium by about four thousand seats, the new work gave a harmonious architectural look to the stadium. A huge celebration marked the opening of the new look stadium moments before the victory over Goiás 3 – 0, in the Brazilian Championship on 20 of July of 1997.
URBANO CALDEIRA
The Stadium of the Vila Belmiro, has been the clubs home for 60 years and has come to be called “the most famous stadium in the world". Its current official name, Urbano Caldeira Stadium only appeared in 1933, in homage to one of the biggest benefactors of the club. Caldeira who was to be goalkeeper and manager of the team, and was often seen on the pitch of the Vila Belmiro, cutting and tending the grass.
Caldeira died 13th March of that year, one day after Santos first game in the new professional league, they were defeated by São Paulo 5 – 1, in the Capital
From 1938 the 9th of January – the date of his birth in Florianópolis/SC, 1890 is called the “Day of Urbano Caldeira “. Just one tribute to the man who dedicated 20 years of his life to Santos. A statue pays homage to him in the social club of the Vila Belmiro.
Recommended links:
The Vila Belmiro card
The Santos card
The Santos pictures taken at the time of our travel to Brazil
Vila Belmiro pictures
Article published in the special week of Santos in sambafoot.com:
