Simon Hunter
More than 10,000 people turned out on Sunday to watch the Tarragona Human Towers Competition, which is the largest of its kind in Spain.
The ‘castells’, as the towers are known in Catalan, returned this year after a two-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic. Men, women and children participate in the competition, which can prove nail-biting for spectators as the last participants scale the human towers to the top.
The castells were added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, according to news agency Reuters. The tradition began as far back as the 18th century in the town of Valls, which is in Tarragona province.
On Sunday, it was the team from Vilafranca who won the competition, taking a €16,000 prize. The team’s human tower reached 13 metres high.
