Human Towers: The Castellers of Vila de Gracia, Barcelona

Imagine an agile six-year-old clambering up the face of a five-story building, waving from the top, then slithering back down.

Leaves your throat dry, doesn’t it?

Yet several times a week, that’s exactly what happens when the Castellers de la Vila de Gràcia rehearse their castells, or human towers.

“It’s not as dangerous as it looks,” said participant Helena Pons, explaining the inner workings of a tradition dear to Catalan hearts. “In fact it is less dangerous than other sports.”

Perhaps, but my breath stalled as I watched a tiny girl skip over the shoulders of grown men and women, protected by little more than a soft helmet and a look of extreme concentration.

The castells emerged from religious ceremonies during the 18th century but were soon stripped of their divine nature as dancing and acrobatics took over. The original castells can be traced back to the town of Valls, west of Barcelona. When a second group began building human towers, a competition was born.

History hasn’t been smooth for the castells. By the 19th century the tradition had faded, reviving briefly in the 1920s only to be snuffed out by the Franco dictatorship and its efforts to crush regionalism.