Heysel relic in Juventus’ Allianz Stadium

Article posted by Coliseum, January 9^th, 2025

Image: Juventus (Facebook)

The Serie A team Juventus FC will mark the 40th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster on May 29^th, 2025 by building a memorial near their home ground – the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy.

The above project has been approved by the City of Turin and will get rolling in the coming months.

‘FOOT ITALIA’ stated that the project titled ‘Verso Altrove’ (Towards Elsewhere) aims to honor the Heysel Stadium victims while offering a message of hope and renewal.

The Juventus Football Club, commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont (Italy) who competes in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system.

The 41,507-capacity Juventus Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz Stadium since July 2017, sometimes simply known in Italy as the Stadium, is an all-seater football stadium in the Vallette borough of Turin, Italy, and serves as the home of the Juventus FC.

The Heysel Stadium disaster was a crowd disaster that occurred on May 29^th, 1985 when the Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by the Premier League team Liverpool F.C. fans while they were pressed against a wall in the 50,093-capacity Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final.

The stadium was in need of maintenance and had not been upgraded. It had failed inspections prior to the disaster and the wall collapsed under the force. Thirty-nine people – mostly Italians and Juventus fans – were killed and 600 were injured in the mayhem that followed.

‘FOOT ITALIA’ further stated that designed by the internationally renowned artist Luca Vitone (Italian visual artist) and curated by Luca Beatrice, President of the Rome Quadriennale (Italian national institution entrusted with the task of researching and promoting Italian contemporary art), the memorial will be located in a 2,000 square meter green area near the Strada della Continassa close to the Allianz Stadium and the club’s training center.

The centerpiece of the memorial is a 65-meter long, gently spiraling platform that rises three meters above the ground. This architectural element will be illuminated by neon lights making it visible from a distance even at night. The surrounding landscape will feature the Ginkgo Biloba trees (native to East Asia) and lavender bushes chosen for their symbolic significance.

At the end of the ramp the visitors will find a telescope with reversed lenses helping them to look towards the horizon and beyond. This design element will demonstrate the fact that one should move on in life while keeping memories of the past alive.

The choice of flora holds a lot of meaning: Lavender evokes dreamlike sensations often present in Vitone’s works while the ancient Ginkgo Biloba tree represents resilience and the synthesis of the past and the future. The Ginkgo, dating back millions of years to the Mesozoic era (252-66 million years ago means ‘middle life’ and this is the time of the dinosaurs) is considered a living fossil embodying endurance and the connection between the past and the future.

The ‘Verso Altrove’ is conceived not just as a memorial but as a poetic space that invites reflection and remembrance. It aims to create an active environment where the visitors can honor the past while looking towards the future and embracing life.

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