Human Towers of Tarragona: A Death-Defying Show of Cultural Pride

In the town of Tarragona, in the Catalonia region of Spain, an incredible tradition occurs every two years: people stack together 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 which 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 since at least 1712.

The origins of Tarragona’s human towers

The human towers originate a couple of hours south of Catalonia in Spain’s autonomous community of Valencia. Tarragona’s biennial Castells competition stems from a folk dance called the “ball de valenciens” that dates to the 18th and 19th centuries.

This folk dance was characterized by one person carrying another, forming a small tower, to end the dance. When the tradition made its way north, the people of Tarragona fell in love with it. Soon, the ending of the dance became increasingly significant, and the townspeople decided to make it grander still by stacking more people together. Eventually, the ending of the dance became a spectacle in its own right and evolved into a competition whereby teams attempted to beat each other in creating the highest possible human tower.

The first human tower clubs formed in another small town in Catalonia. Eventually, the tradition spread around the region and evolved into the important cultural event that 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

Human towers are one of the most integral traditions in Catalonian culture. All the towns in the region participate and teams, often composed of younger people and even children, represent 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 thing is true in other places like Barcelona and Terrassa.”

Esteve said that the tradition means a lot to the people in Catalonia. The towers symbolize their 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.”

According to Esteve, most human towers are performances. The Tarragona castells is the only time the tradition is presented in the form of a tradition.

“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 are the hardest castells to perform and what team was the best.”

Difficulty wins

Esteve and the rest of the Castellers Vilafranca team were winners of the 2024 Tarragona competition and has a very strong prior record.

“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 Tarragona competition is where teams go to perform the most daring moves they can possibly achieve. This year, the Vilafranca team attempted a 3-by-10 person tower, a 10-by-10 person tower, a 9-by-9 tower, and a 4-by-9 tower.

“All 12 teams start with their 10-people tower. They start with bigger towers early to get a heads up on the other teams,” Esteve explained. “We did the 3-by-ten, and then we tried the 9-by-9; we almost did it, but [in the end we] couldn’t. No one in history has done the 9-by-9!”

“We lost points that round and in the third round, too,” she continued. “We then did the 4-by-10 tower successfully. 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!”

Human towers tradition is safer than it looks

People of all ages participate in Catalonia’s human towers, with competitors ranging from age 4 to 70. Children use special equipment to keep them safe throughout the event.

“The little kids wear helmets made of a material that will protect them,” explained Esteve. “The people they fall on help cushion the kid and we also have older members of the team who teach the children how to climb properly.”

Esteve said that her team practices three times a week, and the people who participate also do special strength training. During practice, teams rarely do the whole human tower.

“The people who climb the tower do special training on their own, like 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 sections, first the bases, and then climbing on people.”

According to Esteve, there is always a medical team on standby for each tower and everyone uses safety equipment such as back-support bands and mouthpieces.