Sometimes, it takes a village to raise a mountain. In Catalonia, no festival is complete without castells, massive towers of humans that can reach jaw-dropping heights—the tallest on record had 10 levels. Castells go back to the early 18th century, and likely grew out of much older gymnastic and human tower–building traditions throughout Spain, particularly Valencia, to Catalonia’s south. Unlike many of these ancient sports, which have all but disappeared over time, castells have actually been gaining in popularity for the last several decades. About a hundred colles, or teams,…
