Europa’s stadium is quite new, as it was opened in 1995. Interestingly enough, the inauguration marked the birth of the Trofeu Vila de Gràcia - Carles Capella, our club’s annual tournament that coincides with Gràcia’s famous Festa Major. But to speak of the opening of a new stadium would be incomplete. A better way to put it would be a reopening, considering that Europa has been playing at this same place between 1940 and 1992, more than five decades. It was simply that the stadium needed a remodelation.

That explains why our stadium is called Nou Sardenya and not Sardenya -‘nou’ means ‘new’ in Catalan- and brings us a little bit closer to the question at stake. We now know that we have to go back to 1940 for our answer. The Sardenya stadium was opened in December of that year, and the choice for this name was obvious at the time: the stadium’s main entrance used to be located along the Carrer de Sardenya, and local tradition was to name the stadium after the street where it could be entered.

‘Sardenya’ is the Catalan name for Sardinia, the island off the Italian west coast. Here in Catalonia, we know Sardinia primarily for a city where Catalan is spoken, l’Alguer, but that is not the reason why the Municipality of Barcelona decided to dedicate a street to the island. In 1863, the Eixample area in Barcelona was built, a project that formed part of the city’s expansion. The city gave the journalist Víctor Balaguer the task of deciding the names of the new streets, and he opted for names that had something to do with the history of Catalonia. Some roads were named after historical institutions (Consell de Cent, Diputació, Corts Catalanes), some after important figures (Pau Claris, Roger de Llúria, Roger de Flor), and some after territories of the Crown of Aragón, a monarchy that lasted for six centuries.

This Crown occupied parts of what we now know as Spain, Andorra, France, Italy, and even Greece. It is crucial in Catalan history because it was the kingdom in which modern Catalonia was formed. The streets in Barcelona remind us of that past, how Catalonia belonged to a bigger realm that crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Some Barcelona streets that refer to these territories are Còrsega (Corsica), Aragó (Aragón), Nàpols (Naples), and, of course, Sardenya (Sardinia).

Despite Europa nor Gràcia having a particular connection with Sardinia, coincidence led to our stadium being named after the island.

>>> A map of all the stadiums that have been our club’s home