A green hill under which ruins from the Second World War are hidden, a lake at the foot, a recognizable tower and as a decoration a masterpiece of architecture - futuristic tent roofs scattered throughout the park...
At that moment, you know you are in the Olympic Park in Munich, a place that was born for the 1972 Games, and which today is a symbol of one of the most beautiful cities in Germany.
The stadium within the park is well known around the world, it is on it Marco van Basten scored one of the most beautiful goals in the history of football, and ours Dejan Savicevic was elusive for Bayern's defense, while the Olympic Hall - or "Olimpijahale", as the Germans call it, is perhaps a little less well-known.
Tomorrow, Montenegrin handball players will fight for glory at the European Championship in that place, and that very hall is written in golden letters in the history of the Olympics, but also of the sport of the former Yugoslavia.
Handball appeared at the Olympic Games back in 1936, but then as the so-called big handball, played in an open stadium, while the real story of this sport at the Games started precisely in Munich 52 years ago.
The first crowned Olympic kings in handball were the Yugoslavs - led by the coach Vlad Štencl "blue" dominated, without defeat, "bite" the Olympic gold medal. Their names still stand proudly on one of the plaques (like a monument) in the Olympic Park, where all the winners of the Munich Olympic Games are located.
Abaz Arslanagić, Petar Fajfrić, Hrvoje Horvat, Milorad Karalić, Djoko Lavrnić, Milan Lazarevic, Zdravko Miljak, Slobodan Miskovic, Branislav Pokrajac, Nebojsa Popovic, Miroslav Pribanić i Zoran Zivkovic anyone passing by the Olympic Park is reminded of who played the best handball on the planet that summer in 1972.
In the years after the Games, the "Olympijahalle" hosted various sports events, from cycling competitions, through ice hockey and figure skating to basketball, and handball is returning home again after the 2019 World Cup this January.
The European Championship will be played in front of 12.000 spectators, and according to reports from Germany, tickets are practically no longer on sale.
It is interesting to recall that the complete Olympic Park cost Germany 1,35 billion marks at the time (approximately 2,9 billion euros today), and the creators of this masterpiece were Günter Benisch, Brother Otto, Ginter Gžimek and others.
The aforementioned tent-like roofs that dominate the Olympic Park were recently declared a historical symbol of engineering construction art in Germany, and the fact that in 1972 the proposal to make the football stadium within this complex was rejected is the best indication of how much everything that was made for the 2002 Games is valued. renovated.
Germany then preserved the complete look of the Olympic Stadium, and Munich got a new football facility a few kilometers away, when the Allianz Arena was built for the needs of the World Cup in 2006.
There are many places in Munich that exude history, but the real sports flavor of this city is still carried in the best way by the Olympic Park.
Bonus video:
