El castell: a Catalan tradition

Last Sunday, in front of the Sagrada Família, a typical Catalan tradition was taking place: human pyramids, called castells. 

Castell

The custom was born in Tarragona almost 200 years ago and it spread across all Cataluña. A castell is a human tower of different heights – depending on the number of people who take part of it, divided into various segments:

• La pinya: it is the base of the castell and the segment composed by the hugest number of people. People who constitute la pinya not only sustain the tower, but they cushion possible falls. La pinya amortises between 40 and 60% of the fall. 
• El folre, las manillas, and los puntals standing upon la pinya to reinforce el tronc.
• El tronc is the most visible part and it determines the difficulty of making the castell, determined by the number of people involved and by the height and number of rows.
• El Pom de dalt is the superior part of the tower, crowned by the enxaneta, a kid who puts his feet on the top, raises his arms and does the aleta, a form of victorious greeting to the crowd. 

The enxaneta

The origins of castells have their roots in the Baile de los Valencianos, a dance realized during some religious processions and characterized by different sequences, among which there is the development of a human construction, too.

The first documented castell happened in Cataluña, in 1770, in Pueblo del Arboç (Tarragona). Only twenty years after it the name castell was adopted, in order to differentiate it from el baile valenciano.

A special and fascinating characteristic of these human structures is the motto, which is: "Força, equilibri, valor i seny" (strength, balance, courage and common sense). 

In fact, castellers – the people who made up the castell – need to have some features:

• Strenght: indeed, the first castellers were farmers, able to hold great weights. Nowadays, a casteller is still a stocky person.
• Balance – and trust. In these situations, trust in the others is crucial, in order to feel supported by those who stand below the tower and who have to hold you.
• Courage - especially for children forming the highest levels of the castell. 
• Common sense – performing requires a huge concentration and good sense. Any distraction or error can cause the fall of the structure.

Los castells were recognized as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, on Jordi Roigé’s proposal. The proposal, dated back to 2006, was welcomed by the entire country and it got the solemn support by the Parliament of Cataluña in April 2008. In Julio 2009, the Spanish State approved the proposal, and the application was formalized on August 28th, 2009, in UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Finally, on November 16th, 2010, los castells became part of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, among other 200 elements coming from different parts of the world and relevant for their peculiarity.  

Why do they perform this tradition in front of the Sagrada Família? There are two main reasons: first, Antoni Gaudí – the famous Catalan artist who projected and designed the Sagrada Família, whose building started in 1882 – was inspired by los castells in the conception of the cathedral, especially for the creation of its towers. Gaudí himself, talking with the architect Cèsar Martinell, established a parallelism between los castells and the towers of his cathedral, since they were built with the same principle: a strong and solid basis and a structure that gets progressively thinner.  Second, in el barri de la Sagrada Família there is a group of castellers, called els castellers de la Sagrada Família. 

Castellers de la Sagrada Família

The group was founded on October 20th, 2002, on Sunday: that is why each year, on Sunday closest to October 20th, they celebrate their birth performing this tradition. 

El castell is something that you should see to better perceive Catalan atmosphere and to learn more about Catalan history and traditions, so, keep you updated about the upcoming events!

Carlotta Neuenschwander and Dario Morra