Vasil Levski National Stadium

Vasil Levski National Stadium (Bulgarian: Национален стадион „Васил Левски“), named after Bulgarian national hero and revolutionary Vasil Levski, is the country's second largest stadium. The stadium has 44,000 seats and is located in the centre of Sofia, on the territory of the city's oldest and most famous park - the Borisova gradina. The Bulgaria national football team's home matches and the Bulgarian Cup finals are held at the venue, as well as athletics competitions. It was used as the home venue for Levski Sofia's Champions League games, and is often used for important derbies between the big clubs from Sofia, instead of their own home stadiums.

History

Vasil Levski National Stadium was officially opened in 1953, extended in 1966 and renovated in 2002.

Prior to their demolition by the Communist authorities during the 1940s and 50s, two other stadiums stood on the ground where the current national stadium lies. One of those was Levski Sofia's club stadium, called Levski Field (Bulgarian: Igrishte Levski, completed 1934), and the other - the Yunak Stadium (built 1928), which lay partially to the southwest. The latter used to host national football team matches with its capacity of about 15,000 seats. Levski were compensated for their loss with a place in the suburbs of Sofia where they were allowed to build a new stadium - the present day Georgi Asparuhov.

The Vasil Levski stadium was completed in 1953 with an announced capacity of 42 000. Originally, only the lower tier of stands was built (roughly half the height of the current stands), and, due to the uneven lie of the land, the western end of the pitch and stands were below ground level. The upper tier was built about a decade later, with the current floodlight towers built in the late 1960s.

The Vasil Levski stadium was used for athletics competitions immediately after its official opening on 5 July 1953. The first football match played there after its opening was a friendly between Dinamo Sofia and FC Wien and,

This page also has a version in other languages :  Васил Левски Стадион (russian)