Life and death of Maracanã: the battle of the stadium in two acts

Abstract The paper recovers the main struggles over the resignification of the Maracanã stadium, which decisively influenced decisions on the destiny of this sports icon. The focus relies on two major historical moments: the planning period (1946-1950) and the refurbishment period (1999-2013), marked by controversies related to lifting of heritage protection. Newspaper archives are utilized to analyse the former, whereas institutional archives of Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) are used for analysing the latter. The authors recognise the popular, public and monumental character of Maracanã as the core element comprising its identity.