Sala Constantin Jude

Sala Constantin Jude sits on Aleea F. C. Ripensia. It is an old piece of infrastructure, one of the few venues in the town that dates back to the 1960s, and it still carries the memory of its original purpose as a basketball hall.

Inside, the floor is wood. The seating was replaced with individual plastic seats during a renovation that closed the doors for a while, a project that trimmed the capacity from over two thousand down to the 1,400 seats that remain today.

Despite the worn look of the exterior, the hall still plays host to events that draw crowds far larger than the official numbers suggest. There have been nights when the fighting shows filled the aisles and the space behind the seats, with spectators spilling out onto the concrete floor. It is a different kind of noise to a football stadium, a tight, enclosed sound that bounces off the concrete pillars. The building does not try to impress; it simply holds the space when the city needs a place to gather, whether for a handball match or a concert that nobody expected to sell out.