Imagine 300 people together, climbing on each other, making a tower which could get 10\u00a0stages high, with a lot of people in the base, and just one -a young child- at the top, with one\u00a0of its arms up, hand pointing to sky. That\u2019s a \u201cCastell\u201d, human constructions that have been\u00a0done in Catalonia for more tan 200 years.<\/p>\n
Human castles started as the evolution of an ancient valencian dance called \u201cMuixeranga\u201d,\u00a0which used to finish with a small pilar done by 2 or 3 men. Over time dance was lost, but\u00a0music stayed to indicate the construction’s evolution of the castle.
\nThe first known document to talk about a \u201ccastell\u201d is from 1712 at the town of Valls,\u00a0Tarragona. During the following 100 years, the construction spread across the catalan\u00a0territory, turning into a tradition and usually related to the patron saint festivals of each town.\u00a0Finally in November 2010, with a consolidated annual \u201ccastellers\u201d -the name of the people in\u00a0the castle- championship that takes place during the warm months from April to November,\u00a0the construction of \u201ccastells\u201d was declared element of Intangible Cultural Heritage of\u00a0Humanity by UNESCO.<\/p>\n
Here you have some technical tips to understand what happens during the construction:
\nA castell has three different parts: \u201cPinya\u201d, \u201cTronc\u201d, and \u201cPom de Dalt\u201d.
\nLa pinya is the base, a bunch of big and strong castellers who will support the whole weight of\u00a0the castle, and will cushion the blow in case of an eventual failure. Depending on the type of\u00a0castle, the base can also have \u201cFolre\u201d, \u201cManilles\u201d or \u201cPuntals\u201d, castellers in special places to\u00a0give more stability or power to that base.
\nThe central part of the castle is the \u201cTronc\u201d, the trunk. They create floor upon floor with\u00a0between 2 and 5 castellers, depending on the number of stages the construction will achieve.
\nThe \u201cPom de Dalt\u201d is the uppermost levels of the castle. Young childs who will raise up the\u00a0\u201cAnxaneta\u201d, the tiniest one, who will show its hand up. The Castell is now loaded.
\nOnce the tower construction has been successful, there\u2019s a new upcoming and even more\u00a0difficult job. It has to be as well unloaded without falling down. During the championship this\u00a0will give extra points.
\nDuring the whole construction you will hear different kind of sounds provided by the \u201cgralles i\u00a0timbals\u201d, sorts of flutes and drums. Every single song indicates the evolution of the castle in its\u00a0construction, so everyone knows what part is being raised. This is called el \u201cToc de Castell\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Valls, the cradle of Castells, is taking place the project \u201cM\u00f3n Casteller\u201d, the museum of\u00a0Castells, who will open soon to show the world history, evolution and future chances of this\u00a0great tradition.
\nDuring the last years, and thanks to catalan emigration worldwide, small castellers groups are\u00a0being created in cities such as London, Paris, New York or even Beijing. They\u2019re small \u201ccolles\u201d,\u00a0which of course cannot do big towers. But that\u2019s not the important.<\/p>\n
Castells are a proof of strength, constancy, confidence, and the best example of teamwork you\u00a0will ever find. It is a really incredible show, worth doing an excursion to any town where it\u2019s\u00a0done that day. Don\u2019t miss it, you would regret.<\/p>\n
By Alex Carbonell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine 300 people together, climbing on each other, making a tower which could get 10\u00a0stages high, with a lot of people in the base, and just one -a young child- at the top, with one\u00a0of its arms up, hand pointing to sky. That\u2019s a \u201cCastell\u201d, human constructions that have been\u00a0done in Catalonia for more tan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107],"class_list":["post-2794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism-facilities-2","tag-barcelona-2","tag-barcelona-tourism-2","tag-catalonia-tourism-2","tag-costa-brava-2","tag-customized-services-2","tag-events-2","tag-festivals-2","tag-free-wifi-2","tag-hotels-2","tag-limousines-barcelona-2","tag-mercedes-2","tag-montserrat-2","tag-tarragona-2","tag-tarragona-tourism-2","tag-tours-2","tag-transfers-2","tag-transportation-services-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2794"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2826,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions\/2826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonalmarlimousines.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}