In Tarragona, Spain, an incredible competition occurs every two years where people stack on each other to form human towers.
The best colles, also known as human tower groups, gather at the Tarraco Arena Plaça, the bullfighting ring in Tarragona, to see what group can form the best tower. This Catalonian tradition, also known as the Castells, was declared a UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2010, but it has existed for a long time.
The origins of the human towers
The human towers originate a couple of hours south of Catalonia in the Valencian community. The bi-annual competition in Tarragona stems from a folk dance called the Ball de Valenciens that dates to the 18th and 19th centuries.
This folk dance ended with one person carrying another, forming a small tower. When the tradition made its way north, the people of Tarragona fell in love with it. The ending became more significant, and they wanted to make it grander by stacking more people on top. Eventually, the conclusion of the dance became its competition to see who could stack more people together into a tower.
The first human tower clubs formed in a town in Catalonia, where townsfolk gathered to try to make a tall human tower. Eventually, the tradition caught on around the region and evolved into what it is today.
“The castells started in Valles around 200 years ago,” said Alba Esteve, a team member of the Castellers Vilafranca team. “The town started the tradition and evolved to where it is today. Every town has a team, and we perform throughout Catalonia and Spain.”
An important Catalonian tradition
The human towers are one of the most integral traditions in Catalonian society. All the towns in the region participate, especially the younger population, in representing their town through their performances.
“All the young people in Vilafranca want to participate in the event,” said Esteve. “It is the popular thing to do. The same is true in other places such as Barcelona and Terrassa.”
Esteve said that the tradition means a lot to the people of Catalonia. The towers symbolize the culture and their pride in being from the region.
“It is a tradition firmly rooted in the region,” said Esteve. “The feeling of permanence and identity is the most essential feeling attached to the Castells. We say it reflects society because people form each tower layer, much like how each tier of society is stacked on each other.”
The human towers are mostly performances, while the Tarragona event is the only time they are truly a competition.
“There is one day every two years where we have a competition, but the rest of the days, it is not a competition,” said Esteve. “The townspeople know which the hardest castells to perform are and what team was the best.”
Difficulty prevails
Esteve and the rest of the Castellers Vilafranca team were winners of the 2024 Tarragona competition. The team has won every competition except a single one since 2000.
“Since 2000, we have won the Tarragona competition every time except for once,” Esteve said. “We won despite not achieving some of the towers we set out to do because this is a day where everyone gives it their all, and the other teams failed more than we did.”
The day of the Tarragona human tower competition is a day on which teams go for the craziest moves they can possibly perform. The Vilafranca team attempted a 3 by 10, 10 by 10 tower, a 9 by 9 tower, and a 4 by 9 tower.
“All 12 teams start to do their 10-people tower,” Esteve said. “They start with bigger towers early to get a heads up on the other teams. We did the three by ten, but we tried the nine by nine, and we almost did it but couldn’t. No one in history has done the nine by nine. We lost points that round. We lost points in the third round, too.”
“We then did the four by ten tower successfully,” added Esteve. “We only did that one once before in our history, in 2016, but we managed to do it practicing earlier this year, so we tried it.”
The tradition is safer than it looks
The town’s people participate at nearly all ages from about four to around seventy depending on the person. The kids use special gear to keep them safe throughout the event.
“The little kids wear helmets made of a material that will protect them and the people they fall on by deforming a little bit while being cushioned for the kid,” said Esteve. “We have older members of the team that teach the little kids how to climb properly.”
Esteve emphasized that the team practices three times a week, and the people who climb do special rock climbing and gym training separately. In practice, teams rarely do the whole human tower.
“The people who climb the tower do special training on their own, such as rock climbing and hitting the gym to work the specific muscles required to climb,” said Esteve. “During practices, we don’t do the whole tower all at once. We practice in pieces, so bases, and then climbing on people.”
According to Esteve, there is always a medical team on standby at Terragona’s human tower competition for each colle, and everyone uses bands for their backs and mouthpieces.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
