Estádio Municipal Castor Cifuentes

Nova Lima's ground carries a nickname. Locals call it the Alçapão do Bonfim — the trapdoor of Bonfim — after the district on the eastern edge of town where the pitch sits.

Villa Nova built its identity here. The club took the Minas Gerais state title four years running, from 1932 to 1935, then again in 1951 after beating Atlético Mineiro in the final. In 1971 Villa Nova became the first official champion of Brazil's Série B.

The ground itself was reopened on 15 October 1989, and the natural grass pitch has stayed the constant through every era the club has passed through. Attendance here has never chased the numbers of the big Belo Horizonte arenas — the record sits at 15,000, well above the current capacity, a reminder of a night when the trapdoor was packed beyond what it now holds.

These days the calendar leans toward the Campeonato Mineiro and youth fixtures, but the stadium found a new audience in 2023, hosting matches in the women's Série A involving Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro — visiting sides playing on a pitch built for a club whose own biggest days are further back than theirs.