Juventus open new memorial to mark 40 years since Heysel Stadium disaster
Juventus have opened a new memorial to the victims of the Heysel Stadium disaster, 40 years after 39 people died following clashes between supporters at the ground in Brussels.
The memorial was designed by Italian artist Luca Vitone and is located on the Strada della Continassa, near Juventus' Allianz Stadium and training centre in Turin.
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The Heysel Stadium disaster happened before the 1985 European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool, when 39 people — 32 Italians, four Belgians, two Frenchmen and one Northern Irishman — died after a wall that they had been pushed up against collapsed as they were trying to escape clashes between the two sets of supporters that had begun in the stands. Fourteen fans served prison sentences in Belgium for their actions, the secretary general of the Belgian FA received a six-month prison sentence for mistakes made in ticket arrangement, and UEFA was found civilly liable in 1990 and later made jointly responsible for incidents occurring at events it organises.
The memorial, which is situated in what was a 2,000m squared green space, is the culmination of a project launched by Juventus and the late art critic and fan of the club, Luca Beatrice. The garden features a ramp that spirals up into the sky. At the top of the LED-illuminated walkway is a telescope with inverted lenses, which draw the viewer's gaze toward the horizon. Verso Altrove, a work by artist Vitone, is supposed to take you somewhere else — not away from Heysel but to a place of contemplation and reflection.
40 anni fa, la tragedia dell'Heysel.
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) May 29, 2025
A Ginkgo biloba has been planted to provide more than just shade from the heat on warm summer days. 'Symbolically, it's a very important tree,' Vitone told The Athletic. 'It was one of the few living things that survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. Already a symbol of resistance, longevity and perseverance in life, it should be a lesson to us all on how to live in this world. It's an ancient tree, a living fossil, a symbol of tenacity and memory, which is considered one of the most positive representations of life in the Far East.'
Vitone admits such a delicate project wasn't easy to approach. He felt a great responsibility and said that 'we'll only know if we've done something significant or not in the coming months and years'.
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'Now, with Verso Altrove, a new memorial has been added to the club's commitment to cherishing this remembrance, a hymn of life and the human capacity to transform suffering into a renewed sense of hope,' a Juventus statement read on Thursday.
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