Estádio do Marítimo
| O Caldeirão (The Cauldron) |
|
 |
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| Full name | Estádio do Marítimo |
|---|---|
| Former names | Campo dos Barreiros (1927–1957) Estádio dos Barreiros (1957–1969) Estádio do Professor Marcelo Caetano (1969–1970) Estádio dos Barreiros (1970–2013) |
| Location | Rua Dr. Pita 9000, Funchal Madeira, Portugal |
| Coordinates | 32°38′44.02″N 16°55′41.99″W / 32.6455611°N 16.9283306°W |
| Owner | Club Sport Marítimo |
| Executive suites | 42 |
| Capacity | 10,932 |
| Field size | 105 m × 68 m (344 ft × 223 ft) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1925 |
| Opened | 5 May 1957 |
| Renovated | 20 July 2009 until 2 December 2016 |
| Construction cost |
(1957) 12,000,000 escudos (2016) 35,000,000 euros |
| Architect |
Couto Martins (1957) Pedro Araújo (2016) |
| Tenants | |
|
Marítimo (1957–present) Nacional (1957–1998) União (1957–2008, 2011–2012) |
|
(1957) 12,000,000 escudos
Couto Martins (1957)
Estádio do Marítimo (formerly and often still referred to as Estádio dos Barreiros) is a football stadium in Funchal, Portugal. It is the home stadium of Club Sport Marítimo and although much larger in its hey-day, the stadium can now hold 10,932 spectators.
The old stadium itself was rather distinctive in design and shape. Built into a Funchal hillside, the stadium offered and still offers outstanding views of the bay, city, and the rising Madeiran mountain's from its two "banana-shaped" stands that stretch the entire length of the field and curve around most of the running rack, but not entirely. The two stands were both all seated with the bancada nascente being totally uncovered and sufficiently smaller than the main bancada lateral. Because it was built into the ground, the top of the main stand, complete with its roof was actually only at street level, which required walking down several stairways to reach the stand from the main road. Since 2016 the stadium has stands on every side of the pitch totally covered and with every modern commodity.
Football has been played on the site of the stadium since 1927, when it was known as the Campo dos Barreiros. The field was purchased in 1925 by one of Funchal's major football teams, Club Desportivo Nacional, to use as their home ground, officially inaugurating it on 26 June 1927, with a game against Vitória de Setúbal which finished 0-0. The ground was also used by rivals Marítimo, who relocated from their previous home the Campo do Almirante Reis, and so began a long groundshare which also included Clube de Futebol União, the city's third biggest sports club, who also became tenants.
In 1938, because of Nacional's precarious financial situation, leading to an overall poor maintenance and decay of the facilities, the club asked for assistance from the regional government in the way of a loan, remortgaging the land to a value of 280,000 escudos.
Funchal's desperation for a major sports venue had been recognised as far back as the 1920s by the local government, and with this in mind, the council purchased the land from the club at a price of 847,000 escudos to avoid the land falling into the hands of creditors, who would most likely have auctioned it off for agriculture use or property development.
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