Known by “The Quarry”, was designed by the architect Eduardo de Souto Moura and by the engineer Rui Furtado, of the company Afaconsult. The Stadium was built to the 2004 Football European Championship, held in Portugal.
This was a project of innovative architectural lines, with two lateral tribunes and 30 thousand places of capacity. In the Stadium tops, we can find the old quarry and on the other side the astonishing view of a Braga valley. The covering of the stadium is inspired by the marvelous bridges built by the Inca civilization in Peru.
This fantastic work was awarded the Prize Secil in 2004 (architecture category), and in 2005 (Civil Engineering Category), the prize that distinguishes every two odd and two even years, the most significant works of architecture and engineering built in that period.
The architect Eduardo de Souto Moura was awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest prize in the worldwide architecture, in June 2011. The prize was given in Washington, USA, in a ceremony where the AXA Stadium was highlighted and praised by the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
