41 days before World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023, the stage that will be located in the Colina do Encontro (Eduardo VII Park) is already being built, in a work that will last about a month.

Designed by the architect João Matos, the stage will be 40 metres wide and 24 metres high, occupying a total area of 430 m². The work will cost around 450 thousand Euros and will be entirely supported by the WYD Lisbon 2023 Foundation, with the support of a private entity. For the construction of the stage, 170 tons of iron and wood will be used, which have been transported to the site in 16 TIR trucks.

It is to the Colina do Encontro where young people from around the world will travel to participate in the Opening Mass of WYD Lisbon 2023 with the Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon Manuel Clemente to welcome with Pope Francis on August 3rd, and to the Way of the Cross on August 4th. Besides, around a hundred priests, choir members and orchestra members will be on stage at the Central Events performing at the ceremony presided by Pope Francis.

In a message sent to all young people three months before WYD Lisbon 2023, the Holy Father has guaranteed his presence in Lisbon and challenged each one to meet him in this exciting moment: "I'm waiting for you in Lisbon!”.

It was in this same place that Pope Saint John Paul II celebrated Mass with the youths in 1982, where around 500,000 young people from all over the country attended. This moment will also have inspired Pope John Paul II to create the World Youth Day in conjunction with the celebration of the Jubilee of Youth in Rome.

As Saint John Paul II told us "evangelization cannot be accomplished without youthful enthusiasm, without youth at heart, without a set of qualities in which youth is prodigal: joy, hope, transparency, audacity, creativity, idealism..."