Unusual Football Stadium in Henningsvær

Idrettslag sta­di­um in the small fish­ing vil­lage of Hen­ningsvær, which occu­pies two small islands in the Nor­we­gian Lofonten arch­i­pel­ago. It can hard­ly be called a sta­di­um, since there are no stands here — just a few meters of asphalt around the field. The ground is used only for ama­teur foot­ball, but the majes­tic loca­tion has already made Idrettslag famous all over the world. Many would dream of play­ing foot­ball on such an unusu­al site.

The sta­di­um is locat­ed on a rocky islet sur­round­ed by stun­ning scenery of dra­mat­ic moun­tains with jagged peaks, open sea and bays. The foot­ball field was laid on sol­id rock in the south­ern­most part of the island of Hen­ningsvær and quick­ly gained world­wide pop­u­lar­i­ty due to such a dra­mat­ic loca­tion. An asphalt strip has been laid around the perime­ter of the field, which simul­ta­ne­ous­ly serves as stands, park­ing and car park­ing. The tiny capac­i­ty of the sta­di­um seems suf­fi­cient, as the vil­lage of Hen­ningsvær has approx­i­mate­ly 500 inhab­i­tants.

Arti­fi­cial peat is used as a field cov­er, since nat­ur­al grass will not take root in such harsh con­di­tions. The sta­di­um is main­ly used by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the ama­teur club Hen­ningsvar IL to teach foot­ball to local chil­dren and play friend­ly match­es. It even has light­ing tow­ers for evening games. Thus, anoth­er new­com­er appeared in the list of the most famous sta­di­ums in the world.