Plenty of fans skip it, convinced the whole place is a closed building site. They’re wrong, and they miss the moment the stands suddenly open up in front of them.
Camp Nou is the home of FC Barcelona and one of the most famous sporting venues on the planet. Since 2023 it has been in the middle of a huge rebuild, so a lot of what you read online is already out of date. The team is back on home turf, and visitors can once again look out over the stands. In this article you’ll find out what a Camp Nou visit looks like today, what’s inside the FC Barcelona museum and when the new stadium should be finished. We’ll also cover match tickets, how to get there and where to stay if you’re planning a trip to Barcelona.
💰 Hotel Alguer Camp Nou - A simple, family-run budget hotel about 500 metres from the stadium.
🏨 NH Barcelona Stadium - A modern hotel with a rooftop pool, a few minutes’ walk from Camp Nou.
💎 Torre Melina, a Gran Meliá Hotel - A luxury hotel with a spa and historic gardens on Avinguda Diagonal.
Where is Camp Nou, and why is it called Spotify Camp Nou?
The stadium stands in Les Corts, a quiet residential and business district in the west of Barcelona, just off Avinguda Diagonal. The metro gets you here from Plaça de Catalunya in about 20 minutes. You won’t find historic sights on these streets, but the club has built a whole sporting campus around its ground: the museum, the Barça Store, a café, an ice rink and an indoor arena.
The name Camp Nou simply means “new ground” in Catalan, and it came from the fans. For decades the official name was Estadi del FC Barcelona, but supporters always talked about the “new ground” to set it apart from the old stadium in Les Corts. Only in the 2000-2001 season did club members vote to make Camp Nou the official name. In 2022 the club signed a sponsorship agreement with Swedish streaming service Spotify, so the full name is now Spotify Camp Nou. You’ll still hear many British fans say Nou Camp, although that word order is wrong in Catalan.
A short history of the Camp Nou stadium
By the early 1950s the old Les Corts ground could no longer hold everyone who wanted to see Barça play. The foundation stone of the new stadium was laid on 28 March 1954, in front of around 60,000 supporters. The design came from architects Francesc Mitjans and Josep Soteras, working with Lorenzo García Barbón. The stadium opened on 24 September 1957, the feast day of La Mercè, Barcelona’s patron saint.
In the opening match Barça beat a Warsaw XI 4-2, and Eulogio Martínez scored the very first goal at the new ground. The original capacity was 99,053. Later expansions pushed it past 115,000 for a while, which made it the biggest stadium in Europe by some distance.
Before the 1982 FIFA World Cup, a third tier was added and Camp Nou hosted the opening ceremony and first match of the tournament. It also staged two European Cup finals. In 1989 AC Milan beat Steaua Bucharest here, and in 1999 Manchester United scored twice in stoppage time to snatch the trophy from Bayern Munich. In 1992 the Olympic football final saw Spain beat Poland 3-2 in front of a home crowd. For most fans, though, the stadium belongs to the eras of Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi.
The new Camp Nou: what is the Espai Barça project?
The Camp Nou redevelopment is part of the Espai Barça project, which also covers a new indoor arena and the public spaces around the stadium. Japanese studio Nikken Sekkei designed the new Camp Nou, and Turkish firm Limak is the main contractor. The last game before the major renovation was played on 28 May 2023 against Mallorca. Construction work started straight after, and for two and a half seasons Barça played at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on Montjuïc.
In November 2025 more than 20,000 fans turned up for an open training session at the half-finished ground. The long-awaited return came on 22 November 2025, when Barça beat Athletic Club 4-0 in front of 45,157 people. At that point only part of the stands was in use. In March 2026 the city council allowed the club to open the Gol Nord stand behind the north goal, along with VIP hospitality areas. The available capacity rose to 62,652. The new Gol Sud end also got a supporters’ stand called Gol 1957, a nod to the year the stadium opened.
When will the new stadium be finished?
The hardest part of the job is still ahead. Crews are building the third tier, and after that comes a roof over the entire stadium. The club plans to install the roof in the summer of 2027, so Barça will move back to Montjuïc for the first half of the 2027-28 season. The return to a fully covered Camp Nou is pencilled in for early 2028. Deadlines here have slipped several times before, so check the latest news before you plan a trip around a specific date.
There is one fixed date on the calendar. UEFA has chosen the new Spotify Camp Nou to host the Champions League final on 2 June 2029. It will be the third European Cup final at this ground.
Camp Nou capacity: before, now and after the rebuild
Before the works began, the stadium’s capacity was 99,354. That made Camp Nou the largest football stadium in Spain and in Europe. For comparison, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid holds around 83,000 fans, so Barça’s ground is clearly the bigger of the two.
The planned capacity of the new Camp Nou is about 105,000. Once it’s finished, the stadium will be the largest in Europe again and one of the biggest anywhere in the world. Today, with the upper tier still a building site, the reduced capacity is just under 63,000. That’s still enough for a loud, packed stadium on match days.
Can you visit Camp Nou in 2026?
Yes, you can. It just works differently now than it did before the renovation. The classic stadium tour, with its walk past the dressing rooms, down the player tunnel and into the press room, isn’t running in its old daily form. In 2026 you can choose from a few options, and they differ mainly in how much of the stadium itself you’ll see.
Barça Immersive Tour: the FC Barcelona museum
The basic ticket gets you into the FC Barcelona museum. During the works it has moved to a temporary home next to the stadium, in the ice rink building. It’s an interactive exhibition about the club’s past, present and future. You’ll see the trophy cabinet with the Champions League trophies, old shirts and match balls, plus a whole area dedicated to Messi. An audio guide is included, and it’s available in many languages.
The visit ends in the Spotify Camp Nou Live room, a 360-degree show on giant screens that puts you in the middle of a full stadium on match day. There’s also a viewpoint over the construction site, so you can see how the new stadium is taking shape. For an extra fee you can add virtual reality or a penalty shoot-out against a robot goalkeeper, which children love.
Spotify Camp Nou Experience: the panoramic stadium tour
This option came back in early 2026. On top of the museum, the Spotify Camp Nou Experience takes you into the stadium for a panoramic view of the stands. You won’t walk on the pitch, but for the first time in years you’ll see the inside of the ground with your own eyes. The route involves a lot of stairs and isn’t suitable for wheelchair users, although there’s a designated spot where they can take in the view.
Match Day Tour and other ways to see the stadium
The most complete option is the Match Day Tour, which only runs on match days. A guide takes you behind the scenes into areas that are normally closed: the presidential box, the press room, the interview zone and the VIP spaces. The highlight is a walk on the pitch a few hours before the players step onto it.
The club also sells a Players Experience at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, where the first team trains. Local operators run guided museum visits every day, and die-hard fans can book full-day football tours that take in several of the city’s stadiums.
How long does a Camp Nou tour take, and when is it open?
The museum alone takes about an hour. With the panoramic view or a guide, allow an hour and a half to two hours, and add another hour if you want to browse the shop. The museum is open every day except 25 December and 1 January. Opening hours change with the seasons. From late March to mid-October it’s open from 9.30am to 7pm, and in autumn and winter from 10am to 6pm. Last entry is 45 minutes before closing, and the museum can close early on days with club events.
What you pay depends on the option you choose. The museum ticket is the cheapest, the panoramic stadium tour costs more and the Match Day Tour is the most expensive. Book your tickets online in advance, as popular time slots and match day tours sell out fast. Saturday afternoons from 3pm are usually the quietest time, except on match days and in the summer holidays. Children under three go free, and under-14s must be accompanied by an adult.
You can’t get into the stadium for free. Without a ticket, though, you can still walk around the outside of Camp Nou and pop into the club shop and café.
How to get FC Barcelona tickets for a match at Camp Nou
Watching a game is a completely different experience from a tour. When tens of thousands of fans sing the club anthem, the Cant del Barça, it gives you goosebumps even if you don’t follow football. Tickets for La Liga and Champions League games usually go on sale a few weeks before kick-off. The hardest ones to get are for El Clásico against Real Madrid and for the big league games at the end of the season.
For the biggest games, book as early as you can. You can buy tickets with allocated seats online, and with the reduced capacity during the works they go very quickly. Arrive at least an hour before kick-off, because the security checks at the gates take time. On big match weekends, hotels in Les Corts fill up fast too, so book your accommodation well in advance.
The Barça Store and other club venues nearby
The Barça Store by the stadium is one of the largest club shops in the world. You can buy shirts with your favourite player’s name, balls, scarves and souvenirs for the kids, and have a shirt personalised on the spot. The redevelopment includes a new shop and more commercial spaces, so the store may still move.
Right next to Camp Nou stands the Palau Blaugrana, the arena where Barça’s basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey teams play. The club ice rink nearby is open to the public. Barça Femení and the reserve team play at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in Sant Joan Despí. That’s also where you’ll find La Masia, the academy that has produced many of the club’s stars.
How to get to Camp Nou
The metro is the easiest way to get there. On line L3 (green), get off at Les Corts or Palau Reial. On line L5 (blue), use Collblanc or Badal. From each of these stations it’s about a 10-minute walk to the museum entrance. Visitors go in through Access 15 on Carrer d’Arístides Maillol or Access 9 on Avinguda de Joan XXIII.
Trams T1, T2 and T3 and several city buses also stop nearby. Don’t come by car, because the club car park is closed during the works and the streets around the stadium are gridlocked on match days. From El Prat airport, take metro line L9 Sud straight to Collblanc and walk from there. Arriving on one of the high-speed trains from Madrid or Valencia? Barcelona Sants is just one stop from Badal on line L5.
What to see near Camp Nou
Don’t head straight back to the centre after your visit. A 15-minute walk away, on Avinguda de Pedralbes, you’ll find the Güell Pavilions with their wrought-iron dragon gate, an early work by Antoni Gaudí. A little further on is the Gothic Pedralbes Monastery, with a beautiful three-storey cloister and some of the calmest corners in the city.
If you want to see where Barça played during their exile, the Olympic Stadium sits on Montjuïc hill, next to gardens, museums and the castle. You can ride to the top on the Montjuïc cable car. And if this is your first trip to Barcelona, pair the stadium with Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia for a day that covers both of the city’s great obsessions.
Practical information
- Camp Nou tickets are best bought in advance. You’ll skip the queue and avoid the risk of finding every slot sold out.
- Address: C. d’Arístides Maillol, 12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
- Buy tickets on GetYourGuide
Hotels near Camp Nou
Staying near the stadium makes sense if you’re coming for a match or want to be first into the museum in the morning. Les Corts is a calm residential and business area, and line L3 gets you to the centre of Barcelona in about 20 minutes.
💰 Hotel Alguer Camp Nou
A simple, family-run hotel about 500 metres from the stadium and a few minutes on foot from Collblanc metro station. The rooms are small and plain but clean, with private bathrooms, and there’s a hot and cold breakfast buffet in the morning. It suits fans who only need a bed for the night and plan to spend the rest of the day out in the city. For this part of town, the prices are some of the lowest you’ll find.
🏨 NH Barcelona Stadium
A modern hotel on Travessera de les Corts, a few minutes’ walk from Camp Nou and from Les Corts metro station. It has a gym and a seasonal rooftop pool with views over the city and Montjuïc. The rooms are bright and well equipped. It’s the most convenient base for fans who are here for a match and want the stadium practically round the corner.
💎 Torre Melina, a Gran Meliá Hotel
A luxury hotel on Avinguda Diagonal, about a 15-minute walk from the stadium. It sits in 25,000 square metres of historic gardens, with two swimming pools, a spa and several restaurants. Many rooms look out over the city or towards Tibidabo. Choose it for a romantic weekend or a longer stay in real comfort, well away from the bustle of the centre.
