Heydar Aliyev City Stadium

The complex went up as a hall for sport and concerts alike, and it still carries that double life in its name and its programme.

Work started in 1977, on what was then Tbilisi Avenue. It took thirteen years from the first foundations to the opening in November 1990 — a building begun under one order of things and finished as that order was ending. The name it opened under was plain and descriptive: the Sports and Concert Complex , nothing more. It kept that name for another fourteen years.

The second turning point came in 2015, when Baku hosted the European Games and the complex was rebuilt to meet what the event required. That is the version standing today, at 323 Heydar Aliyev Avenue.

One caution for anyone checking fixtures: there is a second ground in Imishli carrying the same name. The two are regularly confused in listings. This one is the Baku complex, on the avenue, and it runs its own schedule through bos.az — concerts and sport sharing the same floor, as they have since the doors first opened.