When I arrived in Catalonia in 2012, the two things that struck me most were Catalan nationalism and human towers called castells. People were often talking about the global economic crisis threatening the European dream of the welfare state, that there’s “no future” in Catalonia.

Yet, on Sunday mornings, thousands of people wake up very early, get in their cars, and drive to one of over twenty locations to construct something collectively. In other words, we can think of this as an expression of raw national optimism.

Castells were first documented as a cultural form in 1801. They appeared in Tarragona, a rural and religious province of Catalonia. With nineteenth century industrialization, they became a traditional practice, central to popular nationalist celebrations. At the end of the nineteenth century, the “Golden Era of Castells,” groups were even able to build human towers of up to nine levels of people standing on each other’s shoulders.

However, fewer people practiced the tradition with the advent of the economic crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the lowest point, there were only two castells groups in the whole country. During Francisco Franco’s dictatorship from 1939 to 1975, the regime forced the two main colles (teams) to merge, and there was no significant development of the practice until 1981.

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• The end of the nineteenth century is called the “Golden Era of Castells” because teams were able to build up to nine levels. This is one of the few photographs of this pinnacle.
  Photo courtesy Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• This human tower is called a “4-by-7” because there are four people in each of the seven levels built on top of the pinya (ground-level base). This is the team Colla Nova, accompanied by the traditional toc de castells musicians at the first human tower competition in Barcelona, September 24, 1902.
  Photo courtesy Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• When Pere Català i Pic started as a photographer in 1916, the boom of human towers had already ended, and the practice was in a deep crisis. He searched for old pictures because he wanted to know what those enormous human towers looked like. He ultimately became one of most important photographers of these towers. This is in the town of Valls, c. 1914-1930.
  Photo by Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• The building of human towers, paid by city councils, was scheduled in most popular celebrations in the province of Tarragona. Here is a “Pillar of Five” at the inauguration of the popular Library of Valls, 1918.
  Photo by Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• Catalài Pic was the official portraitist of Valls when he started to do avant-garde experiments in photography to portray the village, its people, and the popular culture. He took the first photograph of a human tower from above, c. 1914-1930.
  Photo by Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• In Valls there were almost always two castells groups, one on the right and another on the left of the political spectrum. Each was guided by a charismatic leader who controlled everything, even how much money they received to perform. The two band leaders were Isidro de Rabassóil and Anton del Escolà, c. 1914-1924.
  Photo by Pere Català i Pic, Unal Arxiu
• At a competition in the Tarragona bullring in September 1933, Colla Vella builds a 3-by-7 tower to nearly empty stands, before interest in the practice was reestablished.
  Photo by Jaume Guasch, Arxiu Municipal de Valls
• With the Franco dictatorship, the city council of Valls decided to unify both groups to avoid conflicts between political perspectives. This was the clearest sign of the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the new regime. Here the unified Colla Xiquets de Valls builds a 4-by-7 on March 12, 1939.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Salvador Montserrat
• Every year under Franco’s reign, authorities organized folkloric spectacles to show that Spanish culture was unified, and that the regional differences were just a meaningless anecdote. Colla Muixerra built this 4-by-7 tower for Franco in the Pardo Palace, Madrid, May 15, 1948.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Lluis Liron
• Since the 1950s, human towers have gained notoriety. Over time, changes in photography have created new ways of portraying them, as can be seen in this artistic picture of the top bunch of the Colla Vella in Miramar, July 8, 1951.
  Photo by Antoni Mialet, Arxiu Municipal de Valls
• The 3-by-8 was one of the most common human towers in the nineteenth century, but it almost disappeared until the 1950s. Colla Vella built this one in Valls on October 22, 1952.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• Little by little, human towers started to be considered a Catalan national symbol shown around the world. Colla Vella built this 4-by-7 in Brussels for the Expo ’58.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• If we compare this photograph with the one from the same ill-attended bullring in 1933, we can see how human towers started to be really popular in the 1970s. Here Colla Vella constructs a 2-by-7 in the 1970 Human Tower Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• When the construction of a human tower begins, musicians play traditional music with the gralla (a double-reed instrument) and the timbal (a drum played with one hand). Here is detail of the musicians and the base of a human tower in Arboç, August 28, 1983.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• The traditional festival calendar in Catalonia is based on religious and rural festivities that provide a regular rhythm for everyday life. Human towers were mainstays in these events, but after the 1970s they also started to appear in less traditional contexts. Colla Vella built this 5-by-8 tower at the Feast of Saint Felix in Vilafranca, August 30, 1984.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• The first 5-by-9 tower of the twentieth century was attempted by the Minyons de Terrassa in 1995, but it was successfully completed in 1996  by the Colla Vella at the Feast of Santa Ursula, 113 years after an earlier version of the team did it the first time.
  Photo courtesy Arxiu Comarcal de l’Alt Camp, Fons Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls
• The Castellers de Vilafranca was the first team to attempt and complete the ambitious 3-by-10 human tower in 1998. To date it’s the highest tower ever completed, alongside a 4-by-10. Here they completed it again in Tarragona on September 18, 2016.
  Photo by Toni Solé, Arxiu Castellers de Vilafranca
• Today, the Human Tower Competition of Tarragona is a great spectacle that attracts attention all over the world. At the 2016 event, 400 journalists from 125 mass media came to cover it.
  Photo courtesy ArxiuRevistaCastells.cat
• The bottom level of support is called the pinya, the second folre, and the third manilles. They provide stability to the tower but also add more weight. Here the Castellers de Vilafranca build a 4-by-10 with three levels of support at the 2016 Human Tower Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo by Toni Solé, Arxiu Castellers de Vilafranca
• The Minyons de Terrassa build a 3-by-10 with three level of support in Barcelona on September 24, 2016.
  Photo courtesy ArxiuRevistaCastells.cat
• Colla Vella prepares a human tower in the 2012 Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo by David Oliete
• Colla Vella completes a 4-by-9 tower in the 2012 Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo by David Oliete
• Human towers can be crowned or completed, but also they can collapse in the middle of the process, like Colla Vella in the 2012 Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo by David Oliete
• Capgrossos de Mataró celebrate the completion of a 2-by-9 tower with three levels of support in the 2016 Human Tower Competition of Tarragona.
  Photo by Alex Machuca

The transition to democracy generated significant changes in Catalan social life, including the resurgence of popular street festivals and celebrations and the formation of twenty-three castellsgroups. It became a modern practice, in urban settings instead of just rural ones. Team members gained social prestige, and they went through a process of internal democratization, allowing women in the groups for the first time. They were also professionalized, with regular team practices and a study of technique. A growing number of groups also began to receive economic support from their towns.

These changes meant that castells are now thriving. Previously seen only in southern Catalonia, the tradition is now practiced in the entirety of the country and has become one of most representative Catalan cultural practices, even designated by UNESCO as Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Now 15,000 people in more than 100 groups practice across Catalonia. Its transformations demonstrate the power of the Catalan culture to evolve and adapt to new social circumstances, bringing together tradition and modernity.

Pablo Giori is a specialist in the dialogue between popular culture and nationalism in Catalonia and Quebec. He also works as a researcher and photography exhibition curator. He is a research associate at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and an advisor for the Catalonia program at the 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.