There are certain perks that you get to enjoy when you take out the time to go to a sporting event rather than watching a live broadcast from the comfort of your home. Stadiums are all about experiences; the noise, the crowd, the shouting, and even the occasional disruption – all of this adds to the thrill of the sporting event that is going. In this regard, we believe that the municipal stadium in Cierny Balog in Slovakia is one of its kind!
If you have ever been to the municipal stadium in Cierny Balog in Slovakia, then you are well aware of the fact that live railways tracks cut across it and the game being conducted has to be stopped at times while the old steam train chugs its way through the stadium. The municipal stadium in Cierny Balog is the only stadium in the world that houses a pair of live railway tracks.
Cierny Balog is a big municipality and was one of the centers of the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising during WWII. It is a conglomeration of thirteen villages. Moving on to the matter of the railway; the historic narrow-gauge railway was constructed during the early 1900s with the aim of transporting wood between Cierny Balog and Hronec. The network was then extended to allow for transportation of wood from the forests as well, and by the mid of the 20th century, the railway tracks totaled a length of 132,000 kilometers. It was the most extensive forestry railway network that existed in Czechoslovakia.
Back in 1914, when the railway track was laid; there was no football pitch. It was built later when the village grew. Furthermore, in 1982, the railway stopped operating, but about a decade later it started operation again as a heritage railway for tourists.
The Cierny Hron railway track is now only 17 kilometers long. The football stadium in Cierny Balog belongs to the local TJ Tatran Cierny Balog club. It is a small stadium that has two stands on one side and is open on the rest. The tracks pass directly in front of the stands.
