History
The original stadium dates from the First Republic between the World Wars and served as a venue for Sokol displays of synchronized gymnastics on a massive scale. It was later used for large displays during the communist era. Performances with several hundred gymnasts making various complex formations and exercising identically while accompanied by tunes from traditional folk music attracted the attention of many visitors. Each time, among the widely popular shows were those of young well-trained recruits who wore only boxer shorts while on the display or women dancing in miniskirts. The groups of gymnasts (unlike the soldiers, who were ordered to practise and participate) were put together from keen local athletic association members who regularly trained for the show throughout the year prior to the event, which repeated every five years. The name of the performance, Spartakiáda, referred to the power and strength of the slave uprising led by Spartacus.
Motor racing also took place in the stadium in the mid-1960s.
Since 1990, the stadium has been used for concerts.
Read more about this topic: Strahov Stadium
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“There is no history of how bad became better.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)