Anniversary: "Monumental Farewell" to the old Cathedral

Today, it is part of the heart and memory of the Benfiquista. The old Catedral was demolished and gave way to a new and modern stadium, inaugurated in 2003. But the history of the old Luz remains, stage of several moments of glory from the reds... which ended with a monumental and emotive farewell.

December 1st, 1954, date of the restoration of the Independence of Portugal, was the day of one of the greatest achievement in the Benfiquista History - the inauguration of the Stadium of Sport Lisboa e Benfica. A mythic stadium for the Benfiquistas. It was the culmination of a long-standing dream. A monument erected with the will of a nation!

Finally, at 11:00 am of that same day, Joaquim Ferreira Bogalho – president of Benfica at the time and the biggest responsible for making the dream come true –, opened, symbolically, one of the access doors of the old Estádio da Luz, inaugurating one of the most beautiful sports venues in the world.

Originally with two tiers, without floodlight and isolated, later it would be equipped with floodlight towers (1958), one Third Tier (that would become eternal and mythic) built in two stages (1960 and 1985, allowing to expand its capacity to 66 000 and 120 000 spectators, respectively) and several sporting infrastructures around the stadium.

It was not a happy debut great debut for the reds: a loss against the rival FC Porto (3-1) – a revenge for the rout applied by Benfica (8-2) in the inauguration of the Estádio das Antas, a little over two years before, in May 1952.

The 1960s would be glorious, with the winning of the European Champion Clubs' Cup two year in a row (1960/61 and 1961/62), with the famous team led by the Hungarian Bela Guttmann outside the pitch and the immortal Eusébio da Silva Ferreira on the pitch.  There followed years of Glory and Mystic… until the day the old and mythic Estádio da Luz was demolished. 

On March 22nd, 2003, the Benfiquistas said farewell to the old Cathedral. In the welcome of Santa Clara – in a match of Gameweek 26 of the Championships, that finished with a 1-0 win for the reds –, there were nearly 55 thousand spectators in the stands, at a time the south stand had already been demolished

Benfica's starting lineup: Moreira, Miguel, Argel (73’ João Pinto), Hélder, Ricardo Rocha (46’ Armando Sá), Petit, Tiago, Geovanni, Zlatko Zahovič (46’ Sokota), Nuno Gomes and Simão Sabrosa.

The celebration of the “Monumental Farewell” would be crowned with a win (after a penalty kick converted by Simão Sabrosa at 62’). The Estádio da Luz went to bed late on the last night it hosted a match. There was Daniela Mercury, Rui Costa, Eriksson, and fireworks…

The new Estádio da Luz would be inaugurated shortly after, on October 25th, 2003.

Text: Filipa Fernandes Garcia

Pics: Archive / SL Benfica