We spent three months in Barcelona with a few mini trips squeezed in! You can see our Barcelona posts here, and some Paris posts here.

Staying in Barcelona, one of the Catalan traditions that I was excited to see is the human towers called castells.

The castell tradition started in rural areas of the region in the 18th century. Teams based within Barcelona is a relatively new development starting in the 1960s. You can read more about castellers and the Barcelona teams here, and there’s a much more detailed history of the tradition on Wikipedia.

Luckily for us, we’ve had a few opportunities to see the castellers build their towers in public squares around city, and it’s always exciting! These photos are from the La Merce festival, which takes place every September in the city.