It makes a change to see this great group of castellers, the oldest in Tarragona, training at their base, away from the squares filled with onlookers craning their necks to get a glimpse of the human tower building up.

The 24th edition of the annual human towers competition took place over the weekend at the arena in Tarragona with 32 collas of Castellers taking part.

The main Human Towers display of the Santa Tecla festivities takes place the first Sunday in a square crammed with spectators.

Sant Roc is a local festival celebrated at the heart in the Carrer de Cos de Bou, located in the Part Alta of Tarragona.

Tarragona human towers

One of the great privileges of living in Tarragona, is to watch the Collas build castells “human towers”, this spectacular feat of balance, strength and human engineering which is unique to Catalonia.  From atop a balcony it looks like the inverse making of a flower, it’s petals embedded in the ground and the stem raising up in to the sky.

Human Towers in Tarragona

This edition of the  National Castells Competition (Concurs de Castells) will take place over two days, the 6th and the 7th of October and it’s going to be huge with thirty groups taking part.