Human tower

It's an important festival in Barcelona today, Corpus Christi. There will be a special Mass tonight and a procession through the city.

Throughout the day there has been music and dancing and in the square, I was lucky enough to witness a Catalan speciality, the building of a Castell, or human tower.

Castellers come from all over Catalonia, wearing different colour shirts according to their district - the red ones are from Barcelona . They wear white trousers and a long black sash which supports their backs and acts as a foot or handhold for climbing.

The base or pinya is built first, usually from stocky men. Then, to the music of pipes and drums, the other members climb up. The last layers are made up of children, and the tower is complete when a small child (the enxaneta) stands on top and raises four fingers to represent the red stripes on the Catalan flag. The crowd cheers as the tower disassembles (apparently the most dangerous part).

The motto of the Castellers is 'forca, equilibri, valor i seny' which means 'strength, balance, courage and common sense.'