Estadio Centenario

Every stadium built for the 1930 World Cup fell before it, but the Centenario is the one that stood. Raised in Parque Batlle between February and July 1930, it opened on 18 July with the tournament's first group match, Uruguay against Peru, and closed the competition twelve days later with the hosts beating Argentina 4:2 in front of 68,346. The semi-final against Yugoslavia had already drawn 79,867. FIFA named it a Historic Monument of World Football in 1983.

The architect Juan Antonio Scasso designed it around open terraces that once let tens of thousands stand for a fraction of the seated price; safety rules have since closed them off, and all 60,235 places are now seated. The Tribuna América still houses the press centre and the private boxes.

Peñarol called it home from 1933 until 2016. Nacional turns up for the occasions that matter. In 2021 the ground took on a different kind of test, hosting the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana finals within days of each other, work that meant relaying the pitch entirely and rewiring the floodlights at a cost running into millions. A far larger rebuild is now planned for 2030, the World Cup's centenary, one that would tear down part of the América stand and sink the pitch itself — a project priced in the hundreds of millions.

Between football fixtures, the Centenario has taken concerts from the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins and Sting.