Castellers de Vilafranca build nine-tier human tower with nine people in each, first-ever

Castellers de Vilafranca human towers continue to win big and on Wednesday, they reached a historic milestone for the first time ever in the 'castellers' world. They built a 9-tier human tower with nine people in each, un nou de nou for those in the jargon, something that no other group had ever attempted before. 

The difficulty was extreme, and the team decided to crown the top of the tower with only one 'enxaneta,' the first plan was to crown it with three 'enxanetes,' a kid who sits on top of the human tower. 

This kid then had to go from top to top and raise their hand, doing the 'aleta,' symbolizing the tower had been properly completed. However, ahead of the third hand raise, the tower collapsed. 

The 'Verds', their nickname, managed to construct the nine-tier tower with nine people in each, a nou de nou'. The construction included an extra tier of extra support to the base ('folre'). Experts believe that the 'pinya,' the lower part of the tower that helps support it, weighed 12 tonnes, and around 500 people took part in the 'pinya.' 

The event was followed live on the square in Vilafranca del Penedès by 6,000 people. 

The nou de nou arrived after the 'Verds' had built the 'tres de deu amb folre i manilles' (a ten-tier with three people in each with two extra tiers of support to the base), a castell which they had already built in Tarragona last year. 

Other castellers, such as the Capgrossos de Mataró, the Xiquets de Tarragona, or the Castellers de Sants, also built many human towers. All these 'colles' took part in the All Saints competition, one of the most important in the calendar for the castellers.

Castells – Catalonia's amazing human towers

Not for the faint-hearted, castells are human towers that can reach up to 10 stories high – that's 10 groups of people stacked on top of each other! Press play below to listen to our Filling the Sink podcast episode from June 2022.