Castells - holiday living pyramids

It just so happened that all the days of our short vacation on the coast of Spain, in Tarragona we chose September 11, the day when the whole of Catalonia celebrated the Independence Day. We certainly expect that in Tarragona, this day should be some kind of holiday, but could not afford even to imagine that we had to see there.

Tarragona Ancient Roman city that still preserves the remains of the former greatness of the Roman Empire. When we went there, I had planned to just walk around and look at the old town, with its medieval architecture,

well, and all the visiting tourists stand on the "Mediterranean Balcony" and enjoy the views of the sea, the city and the ruins of a Roman amphitheater.

But when were at the center of the old town, then got into a real human whirlpool. It immediately became clear that the city holiday today and all the inhabitants of the city are sent somewhere. All that we could do - join the stream of people and move with it. So we were on one of the squares in the heart of a human funnel.

There was music, were music bands and banners on buildings, pointed out that there should soon be something happen.

While we gazed around, people became more and more. What immediately catches the eye is the fact that half of them were dressed in the same costume - white trousers and colored shirts. Shirts are of different colors, and this suggests that they belong to the participants some teams.

Questioning the locals, using gestures and simple interrogative sentences in broken Spanish, we ended with the fact that we showed up on a ladder and uttered enigmatic Castells ...

The staircase led to a small square in front of the cathedral, which had already begun to gather a group of people in the same costume.

The mystery of the mysterious Castells was found in the window of a house. All at once it became clear ... Castells - are living castles or towers of the people. It was possible to guess ... After writing the Catalan castells = angiyskomu sastels and means locks. But the whole thing seems to have been the pronunciation, word stress and the rate at which the local pronounced it Castells ...

The fact that we of course knew the competition for the construction of the pyramids of living are held in Catalonia and not seen on TV, as it happens in the same Barcelona, ​​but to see the show "live" had ever. It turns out the tradition of the competition for the construction of living locks it originated in Tarragona, and rooted in the depths of the Middle Ages.

Gradually, the square in front of the cathedral began to fill the audience, competition participants, their assistants, and began "wrapping". And I must say that the wrapping, as spectacular as not much inferior to the very process of "construction".

In Tarragona four kastelerov team. Every team has a different color shirts and logo that indicates belonging to a particular club. In addition to colored shirts and white trousers, the shape of each of the members includes a wide black belt and a bandana. Belt is needed to support the back and for easy lifting and lowering, allowing the foot to catch and grab hands.

Meanwhile, the area continued to arrive by team members and the whole process was accompanied by the roar of drums and the sound of wind instruments.

At 12 hours the area was hammered by people "the eyeballs", and the most interesting was the fact that the team members can not be separated from the audience, and just settled into their crowd.

We expected that there will be some announcement of the competition, but nothing happened.

It all started even without a high-profile teams. Just one point, they saw that the contest began and the ground began to rise the column of participants of the first team.

An interesting fact is clearly visible in all photos that members of all the teams have for each other nor any competition "dislike", and willing to help keep the base of the tower to their rivals.

Someone with places "in the audience" very lucky.

A few minutes after the performance of one team, the other end of the square, began to grow a new tower, the other team.

Again, you can see how the participants just speaking team already assist their comrades from the other team.

At the base of the pyramid are the strongest participants, the following floors are constructed of lighter members of the team, but to the very top bunk sent the youngest participants who to look at, even frightening to imagine five or six years. And they do not have any insurance, in addition to helmets on their heads.

competition rules does not require that the latter party stood up to his full height, you just have to crawl through the "top" and raise his hand, but this girl demonstrates a complete fearlessness.

Dismantling the pyramid is no less interesting than its construction.

Slazit have to literally - on their heads

And here is an example of why using belt ...

One of the difficulties of descent - not to overthrow the central column of the pyramid, which is still standing.

Someone has to take off with the help of his comrades.

Although the uncle himself who want to remove

Then the baton takes the largest team.

For many, simply participate in the great joy and pleasure.

As with any construction, the main burden falls on the "foundation".

And it waits for its turn is the "verhushechka" of the pyramid.

Unfortunately, we could see only the first part of the performances, where the pyramids were simple, warm-up. In the second approach, the team began to build is not just a pyramid, a real live locks.

But it's time we were already moving on ... someone else wanted the afternoon to spend at sea.

They left the area creaking heart, and went looking around, wondering what was happening out there without us.

But the biggest delight and surprise is this video, after watching that, all that we have seen in the cathedral square seems to have a street view. This spectacular show takes place in the main arena of Tarragona, during the annual competitions held in October. Just for the sake of the spectacle here should definitely come.