The Castellers of Barcelona

In Catalan, the word ‘castell’ means castle.  This tradition of building a human tower by lifting different levels of people until a great height involves hundreds of people. The people who take part in this activity  are called ‘castellers’.  The castellers are grouped in “colles” that normally take the name of its place of origin.

The tradition of building castells originated in Valls, near the city of Tarragona, in the southern part of Catalonia towards the end of the 18th century. Later it developed a following in other regions of Catalonia and, since 1981, when the first castell of 9 levels of the 20th century was built, it has become very popular in most of Catalonia.

The base of a castell is called "Pinya" which is a relatively large ring, onto which the weight of the load above is distributed and which stabilizes the structure. This ring also softens the fall of the castellers when the castell is disassembled.

Depending on the height of the tower, one or two additional ring-shaped floors ("Manilles") are put on top of the pinya.  On top of this, the actual tower is built. The "tronc", Catalan for trunk, consists of several levels with a specific number of people.

Climbing to the top of the tower is only allowed for kids, because of their light weight. This child is called “anxaneta” (Catalan: “enxaneta”)

When the signal to proceed to build a castelle is given, the band  begins to play the traditional Toc de Castells music as a hush comes over spectators of the event. A castell is considered a success when stages of its assembling and disassembling, can be done in complete succession. The assembly is complete once all castellers have climbed into their designated places, and the anxaneta climbs into place at the top and raises one hand with four fingers erect, in a gesture said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag. The anxaneta then climbs down the other side of the castell, after which the remaining levels of castellers descend in highest-to-lowest order until all have reached safety.

The building of castells is a rather rural tradition, which also explains why the first club in the city, the Castellers de Barcelona, was founded quite late in 1969. Each club has its distinctive colours.  The castellers in this postcard are wearing red shirts which indicate they are from the club ‘Castellers de Barcelona’.

 

On November 16, 2010, castells were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

This wonderful postcard came from Marta of Catalonia (28 April 2014) Postcrossing.