The mission of the Historical Heritage Department is to research the history of Real Oviedo, share it and manage its most significant elements. During the 2023-24 season, the department has redoubled its efforts to highlight the club’s past.
One of the commemorations carried out by the Historical Heritage Department was the unveiling of a monolith installed on the site of the Vetusta stadium, where Real Oviedo played the first match in its history. In September 2023, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of the stadium, the monolith commemorating Real Oviedo’s first stadium was unveiled.
The 100th anniversary of the Balesquida Cup, won by Real Club Deportivo Oviedo, one of the two founding clubs which merged to create Real Oviedo, was also commemorated during the recently concluded season. The cup is on display in the club’s museum.
More recent milestones were also highlighted, such as the tenth anniversary of Lucas’s debut for the first team. The full back has been with Real Oviedo uninterruptedly since then. The 150 official matches with the first team reached by both Viti and Borja Sánchez were also highlighted.
The municipality of Aller became the setting for a major exhibition entitled Real Oviedo in the history of football, which could be visited from 10th to 28th June at the Moreda Cultural Centre. More than a thousand visitors passed through the exhibition during that time. In addition, on 11th June, the Historical Heritage Department organised a seminar on the history of Real Oviedo.
Under the title "I did not abandon Real Oviedo in the Third Division", a conference was held in April at the Carlos Tartiere stadium, on the twentieth anniversary of the 2003-2004 season, a very special one in the history of the club. This conference was attended by managers, coaches, and players from the squad of that season.
Isidro Lángara, a remarkable player in the history of Real Oviedo, was the main focus of the work of the Historical Heritage Department, which during the season first created the Lángara Study Centre, and later participated in the tribute to the Oviedo striker dedicated to him by the town council of Andoáin (Guipúzcoa).
The History Board carried out a wide range of projects, in which the conferences that took place in different peñas' headquarters, the articles published on different chapters of Oviedo's history and the advice given to the organisation on different historical matters were of particular interest.
Marianín, the top scorer of the First Division in 1973, returned to receive our love and affection for another year. We accompanied our former player to the inauguration of the street in his hometown, Fabero, which has since been named after him. We also continued with the promotion of the book El Jabalí del Bierzo, published by the Real Oviedo Foundation a year ago.
We participated in the tributes paid to our former coaches Vicente Miera, in Madrid, and Miguel Sánchez, in Navia. We also visited two of our former players; Lalo, at his residence in Luanco, and Boudón, at his home in Gijón. We also invited former Real Oviedo player and coach José María to the Tartiere box to attend the match against RCD Espanyol of Barcelona and to present him with a commemorative shirt.
In November, the Historical Heritage Department was present at the meeting held in Madrid by the heads of the history departments and museums of Spanish football to exchange experiences and knowledge related to their fields of study. At the meeting, the management of football museums and history departments was analysed and different ways of advancing collaboration between football clubs were evaluated.
On the anniversary of Real Oviedo, the History Board renamed two gates at the Carlos Tartiere stadium with the names of two of our most important players. Toni and Sánchez Lage are the names that from this year onwards will appear on gates 2 and 8, respectively.
In addition, the Historical Heritage Department managed the process of several donations of valuable items to the museum which have become part of Real Oviedo’s collection. These donations include a membership card from 1934, two tickets for the 1982 World Cup match that was held in Oviedo, a Dominican national team shirt worn by our player Charbel in an official match, the Slovenian national team shirt worn by our player Anja Eferl, a collection of photos of Lángara donated by Valentín Fernández Santaclara, and another set of photos of the best Spanish goal scorer of all time donated by the Ikutza family.
During each of the 52 weeks of the year, we have published articles commemorating an important event in the history of Real Oviedo, with the aim of bringing our fans closer to the past of our club, especially the younger ones.
The Real Oviedo Museum recorded during the recently concluded season an 8% increase in the number of visits compared to the previous season. The total number of people who passed through the permanent exhibition of the club’s history exceeded 6000.
With the goal of making available to our fans and collectors from all over the world unique pieces that are not usually available to the general public, the Historical Heritage Department organised two auctions of Real Oviedo items, the proceeds of which went entirely to the social efforts of the Real Oviedo Foundation. Among the items auctioned were Santi Cazorla’s personalised boots signed by the player, as well as a ball signed by the entire Real Oviedo first team squad, and a corner flag from the Carlos Tartiere stadium pitch.