- Castell (3 de 7) built at the Sant Jaume Square of Barcelona -
Castells are human towers that are traditionally built during festivals in many places in Catalonia, Spain. At these festivals, several colles castelleres (teams) meet and try to build the most impressive towers they can.
This tradition has its origins in the Tarragona province, but has now spread to many parts of Catalonia.
Terminology
In Catalan the word castell means castle, although a castell with two persons per level is a torre (tower) and is usually called a pilar if it consists of just one person per level.
Castells are mainly described by the number of people standing at the base and the number of levels. In the image opposite, for instance, a 3 de 7 is depicted.
The elements a castell may consist of are as follows:
pinya: The densely arranged crowd of people at the base of the tower. Here is where most of the people are. Its function is to sustain the second level, lighten the weight on the basement people and to soften the impact if anyone falls.
anxaneta (rider) : The topmost child.
folre : A crowd standing on the pinya and sustaining the third level.
manilles : A crowd standing on the folre and sustaining the fourth level.
agulla (needle) : A single-person-per-floor tower (pilar) inside the castell, which when the castell is being undone has to remain standing until the outside part of the castell is already down.
Raised primarily in Barcelona as part of a conservative family, Castells became politically active in the student anti-Franco movement as a teenager, moving to Paris to finish his degree at the age of 20.
Castells lives in Barcelona and Santa Monica, California and is married to Emma Kiselyova.
In response to the critical reception of that work at a number of large seminars held at universities across the world, a second edition was published in 2000.
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