Olympic Stadiums That Now Serve Completely Different Purposes

4. Sarajevo’s Olympic Stadium (1984) – Now a War Cemetery

Original Purpose: Hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. New Purpose: A war cemetery following the Bosnian War. Few Olympic venues have undergone a more tragic transformation than Sarajevo’s Olympic Stadium. Once the pride of Yugoslavia, the venue became a battlefield during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). Today, its once-pristine fields are filled with graves, serving as a solemn reminder of the city’s painful past. Despite its somber new purpose, the stadium still hosts football matches, proving that even in the face of devastation, resilience and remembrance can coexist.