Estádio do Rio Ave FC

Vila do Conde built this ground for Rio Ave, and for decades it carried the name locals still use, Estádio dos Arcos, after the seventeenth-century aqueduct arches standing beside it. The stadium opened on 13 October 1984, with Prime Minister Mário Soares among those present, and the design came from architect Branco Ló. In its original form it held around 12,800 people, a scale the club rarely needed to fill on a normal weekend but kept in reserve for the nights that mattered.

That capacity did not last. In November 2020, structural problems forced the demolition of the east stand, and the ground has run at roughly 5,300 ever since — a stadium reshaped by necessity rather than ambition. The arches remain the fixed point of reference, the detail that separates this ground from any other in the district, even as the seating around it has changed.