Human Castles are an event that is only found here in Catalunya (a northeast region of Spain – including Barcelona).  Although just recently, some people from Spain went to Chile and are trying to start it up there.  Other than that -Catalunya is the only place where these human castles take place.  The best team is from Vilafranca – a town 20 minutes from where we are staying.  When we first arrived and toured the town, we saw the square where the human castles take place, but were told the season was over.  The big day or festival when they take place is usually the end of August.  However, we got lucky!  Noelia told us that they were having a tournament with four teams coming to Vilafranca.  So of course we made plans to attend and experience the real Catalan culture!

Each team is extremely large.  They probably have close to 80+ people.  There is always a huge base layer that nobody can really see – but it’s the most important layer and biggest… like a foundation.  From there, people start crawling over the base layer until they reach the middle and start the tower.  It’s really quite fascinating.  There are different types of castles.  They are named first by how many people are in each row, then by how many layers tall they are.   For example, you can have a castle that is 4 of 8.  This means there are four people in each row and it is 8 layers high.  A team wins by getting the most points.  Points are awarded by the difficulty of the castle, if they finish it, and if they can dismount with out falling.  I think there are many other ways to get points, but i don’t know all the rules.  Also, once the team makes it to the 4th layer – there is no turning back.  Up until that point, if they feel like any one of the layers or if the foundation is not good, they can dismount and retry for no penalty.  But once that 4th level is reached, a band begins to play and they must continue.  The band is for the team members on the bottom layers that can’t see the progress of the castle.  They know that when the music starts they have reached the 4th level and the music changes with each level completed.  Pretty good idea!  The castle is complete when someone (usually a ridiculously small child in a helmet) climbs to the top, gets in his/her position, and raises her hand.  If the hand is not raised, the team does not get points for completing the castle.  Then they still have to dismount with out calapsing.  It’s all fairly tricky, but so fun to watch.  You have to be patient though.  Usually it takes about 30 minutes of waiting before you even see people start beginning to build.  It takes so long for the team to get their foundation just the way they want it.  I think we saw 6 castles in 1.5 hours.  This was because while one team was building, the next one was preparing their foundation.  It saved a little time.

Well, here are some pictures.  We got lucky yet again and found out that the Vilafranca team was planning on doing a couple really hard castles… beginning with the 3 of 10!!!  It started off great… but then we saw some of the lower levels begin to wobble.  It’s pretty amazing to see a human castle completely finished, but there’s nothing that compares to a good fall!  (And they know how to fall correctly so nobody gets hurt!… at least that’s what i tell myself.)  So unfortunately, this castle didn’t make it, but it was a great fall!

Next was a red team.  They too started off really well.

You can see the small child with the helmet climbing up to the top.

But they too fell… Just look at the hair of the people on top.

Here’s a photo of another little girl on top.  The castle was complete because she raised her hand!

Here’s a cool story about this castle.  This blue team made there castle and began to dismount.  They were a bit shaky the whole time so everyone thought they would fall.  However, the child on top started to come down and realized the side she had chosen, was not stable.  So she quickly changed sides and continued to come down.  This allowed the team to regain their composure… and therefore, SHE saved the castle!

A couple more photos of the Vilafranca team completing a 2 of 8 castle!  This time they make it up and down… and this one is extremely difficult as you can imagine!

And last but not least, the funniest picture… I’m not sure who I’m more embarrassed for;  the person being grabbed, or the people grabbing.  Either way, I’d say it’s a bit awkward.

by colin and andre’a feldhaus

{matchless}photography

ps. I edited a majority of these pictures with my own custom made “spanish” action.