Estadio Chamartín & Bernabéu

By the early 1940s the old Campo de Chamartín was too small for Madrid’s growing population, and in the spring of 1943 president Antonio Santos Peralba argued for a new ground of 40,000. When Santiago Bernabéu took the presidency that September he told his first board meeting, “Gentlemen, we need a bigger field and we are going to build it”, and pressed for near 75,000. Land adjoining the old ground was bought on 22 June 1944, and that September a competition jury gave first prize to Manuel Muñoz Monasterio and Luis Alemany Soler. The site was blessed on 27 October 1944 by José María Bulart, chaplain to the head of state, Francisco Franco, and Bernabéu struck the first blow with a pick.

Banks did not regard football as a safe investment, so treasurer Luis Corrales Ferras devised an issue of bonds secured by mortgage on the club’s property; Rafael Salgado of the Banco Mercantil e Industrial agreed to fund it. Huarte y Compañía began work in June 1945 with engineer Carlos Fernández Casado, through thirty months of post-war shortages; Real Madrid played its 1946–47 home games at the Stadium Metropolitano. The total outlay came to 38,300,000 pesetas.

The stadium opened on 14 December 1947 against Os Belenenses of Portugal, the Madrid forward Sabino Barinaga heading the first goal in the fifteenth minute. The first competitive match, on 28 December, was a postponed league fixture won 5–1 against Athletic Club. It opened as the Estadio Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, though supporters kept to Nuevo Estadio Chamartín, and held 75,145.

In the 1950s a third tier on the east side lifted capacity to 125,000. On 4 January 1955 the general assembly of member delegates voted to rename the ground for Santiago Bernabéu, and on 18 May 1957 floodlights were inaugurated in a 5–3 win over Sport Recife of Brazil, opening it to night matches.

Real Madrid beat Fiorentina 2–0 in the European Cup final of 30 May 1957, through Alfredo Di Stéfano and Francisco Gento. The ground took the 1964 European Nations’ Cup final, Spain defeating the holders the USSR 2–1, and the European Cup finals of 1969 (Milan 4–1 Ajax) and 1980, where John Robertson’s goal held for Nottingham Forest against Hamburger SV. For the 1982 World Cup a sixteen-month rebuild costing 704 million pesetas, by Luis and Rafael Alemany, sons of the original architect, with Manuel Salinas, roofed the first and second tiers but the east side and cut capacity to about 90,000; Italy beat West Germany 3–1 in the final.

CONMEBOL moved the second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores final to Madrid after River Plate supporters attacked the Boca Juniors team bus in Buenos Aires, injuring players; River won 3–1 on 9 December, in the first Superclásico played outside South America.

After the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters, the new safety regime required seats in place of terraces. Ramón Mendoza’s board commissioned Estudio Lamela, with Ginés y Navarro Construcciones building; work ran from 7 February 1992 to 7 May 1994 at over 5 billion pesetas, sharply raising the club’s debt. A third tier on the west side and the ends added 20,200 seats, taking capacity to 106,000. Raising the stadium from 22 to 45 metres left two-thirds of the pitch in winter shade, and heated piping was laid beneath the grass. In 1997, under Lorenzo Sanz, UEFA’s all-seater requirement brought capacity down to 74,328, and the Tour Bernabéu and club museum opened on 20 May 1999.

Florentino Pérez’s master plan spent 127 million euros between 2001 and 2006 on an eastern extension, taking the all-seated capacity to 80,354; on 14 November 2007 UEFA classed the ground an Elite Stadium and gave it the 2010 Champions League final, won there 2–0 by Inter Milan against Bayern Munich. A larger rebuild went to a competition won on 31 January 2014 by GMP Architekten with L35 and Ribas & Ribas. In February 2015 the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid annulled the planning amendment behind it as an unjustified free grant of development rights, and the club returned in 2016 with a scheme without the hotel and shopping centre, 12 metres taller, and with no increase in capacity. The city council approved it on 31 May 2017 and FCC Construcciones started on site in June 2019, funded by loans totalling 1.17 billion euros.

Real Madrid owns and operates the stadium, which seats 83,186 since the renovation was completed in late 2024. On 16 November 2025 it held its first NFL match, the Miami Dolphins beating the Washington Commanders 16–13 in overtime.