Castell
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- This is about the human towers called Castells. For the German County of the same name, see Castell (Germany).
| Missing image Castellers_3de7.jpg Image of a Castell |
- 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. The ground level (pinya) is the first level, and the top three levels are normally different from the rest (see pom de dalt below). 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.
- aixecador: The person sustaining the anxaneta.
- dosos: The level sustaining the aixecador.
- pom de dalt: The top three levels of the castell: dosos, aixecador, and anxaneta.
- 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.
Castells up to 10 levels have been built.
See also
External links
- Presentation about Castells (PDF file. Written in English) (http://personals.ac.upc.es/aramirez/papers/castells.pdf)
- List of colles castelleres and links to their web-sites (http://www.castellersdebarcelona.org/col.htm)
- Photo album of the Castellers de Barcelona (http://www.castellersdebarcelona.org/fot.htm)ca:Casteller