2 de 8 amb folre
Two castellers per level, with an additional human support level: the folre.
A Tarragona tradition
Castells
How to read a human tower
You can watch a castell rise in front of you and still wonder exactly what everyone around you seems to understand. The good news is that there is a logic to it.
01
Start here
It is not simply a question of height.
The first time you watch castells, everything seems to happen at once. People disappear into the pinya, others begin to climb, the gralles start to play and suddenly the whole square is looking upwards.
But a castell has its own architecture. Its name tells you how it is built and, once you understand that code, you begin to see a completely different structure.
How to read it
What does “3 de 8” actually mean?
The first number tells you how many castellers form each level of the main body. The second tells you the height. The very top changes structure because this is where the pom de dalt begins.
3 de 8
Three castellers on each level of the main body.
4 de 8
Four castellers form each level, creating a wider structure.
3
people on each level
of the tronc
8
levels in the
complete castell
The people
Stop seeing one tower. Start seeing its parts.
A castell becomes much easier to understand once you know where one part ends and the next begins.
Enxaneta
Reaches the summit and makes the aleta.
Pom de dalt
The light upper part formed by the youngest castellers.
Tronc
The main vertical body. This is where the first number
becomes visible.
Pinya
The dense human base that supports the castell
and helps absorb movement.
The moment that matters
Reaching the top is only half the story.
The castell has been crowned.
The enxaneta reaches the top and makes the aleta. At that moment the castell is considered carregat.
→
Now everyone has to come back down.
If the entire structure can be dismantled in a controlled way, the castell is descarregat. The descent is part of the achievement.
Tarragona, land of castells
Here they still belong to the streets.
Tarragona has four local colles, and some of the most powerful casteller moments still happen in its historic squares.
Xiquets
Xiquets de Tarragona
Jove
Colla Jove Xiquets de Tarragona
Serrallo
Xiquets del Serrallo
Sant Pere
Castellers de Sant Pere i Sant Pau
August
Sant Magí
September
Santa Tecla
The Concurs de Castells
No, it is not simply “the tallest tower wins”.
Different castells carry different levels of difficulty. The result matters too, so choosing what to attempt becomes part strength, part technique and part strategy.
Each structure has a different level of complexity and therefore a different value.
A castell that is carregat and one that is completely descarregat do not represent the same achievement.
Each colla has to decide which castells are worth attempting and when.
Now look again
What should I watch?
The hands tightening inside the pinya.
The slight trembling of the tronc.
The silence before the crown.
The changing sound of the gralles.
The enxaneta making the aleta.
The speed of the descent.
You do not need to know every name or every combination. Once you understand how a castell is built, you begin to see balance, trust, calculation and hundreds of people turning themselves into a single structure.