Estádio Brinco de Ouro da Princesa

The Estádio Brinco de Ouro da Princesa is the home ground of Guarani FC, one of Campinas's two main football clubs, and one of the most unusually named stadiums in South America. The ground holds around 30,000 spectators and dates from 1953. Guarani had its finest moment in 1978 when the club won the Campeonato Brasileiro — the Brazilian national championship — a feat no other Campinas club has matched.

Attending a Guarani match is a reasonable way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, and the atmosphere in Brazilian lower-division football — where Guarani has spent much of the past decade — is often warmer and less intimidating than at the big São Paulo clubs. Check fixtures before you travel; the club plays in various state and national competitions depending on the season. The stadium is accessible by public transport from the centre.

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A story
The stadium's name — Brinco de Ouro da Princesa, "Golden Earring of the Princess" — comes from a 19th-century legend about a diamond earring belonging to the daughter of a local sugar baron. The earring was allegedly lost somewhere on the land where the stadium was eventually built. When construction workers turned up no trace of it, the name stuck as a tribute to something valuable that might still be buried under the pitch.

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