Life at the bottom of the human tower

In Spanish they’re called Castelles, in English they are Castles, or human towers. But what looks like extreme gymnastics to us is the pride and glory of their nation going back 200 years.

Sunday Night's Denham Hitchcock had the honour of being a part of the bi-annual event in September this year with the Xiquets de Tarragona.

"It’s extremely rare for a foreigner to take part and there are many things I need to learn"

"This competition is their grand final and the biggest prize of all.. Pride… is on the line," Denham said.

Sergi Feijoo has been competing in human towers for more than 22 years, training for months ahead of event on indoor rock-climbing walls.

"Climbing for me is very similar to climbing human towers. "

"It's a mixture of different aspects, strength in your arms you have to have a lot of power in your hands, balance and confidence."

While strength is important, there is another crucial job in the team.

The final act of the tower all rests on the shoulders of children between the ages of 6 and 10. The child that climbs to the very top, the enxenata, must be light and fast, but above all brave.

The star of the Xiquets is a ten year old girl by the name of Aitana — soft-spoken but gutsy.

"I think that not every kid can do human towers, they, they need to be thinking a little bit crazy maybe," says team member Oriel.

"But sometimes, you may find that tiny girl who says nothing who's really quiet, but, when he goes on the human tower there's a transformation."

The towers can reach up to 10 levels, which must be scaled by the smallest and youngest in the team.

"Really really because they are really, they are really young and it's normal to be scared because it's really high and normally when they go up it moves, it's normal, you are climbing up over the shoulders of someone else and this not a tree, it's not a wall, it's people."

And it can be dangerous when they fall. A child was killed falling from a tower most recently in 2006.

"Normally, bruises, maybe your neck a bit twisted, but normally muscular. The problem is when maybe it breaks just in the middle and the children fell off, just hitting the [floor] from a long distance and could be something more than that."

The first known tower was back in the 17 hundreds… ever since it’s been the pride of this region of Spain…

Oriel competes alongside Sergei and Alex, whose job is planning the tower's structure.

"We are preparing the most difficult show of the season.," he said.

The base of the tower is called the Pinya and for stability the majority of people are packed in tight at the base, including Denham.

A belt of fabric is wrapped around his lower back to protect it from the immense pressure bearing down on him.

Then, one by one the levels go up as competitors climb up their teammates.

Towers were awarded points for difficulty of construction and for the number of levels, butto complete the tower the enxenata must climb to the top and raise their arm.

In the 2016 showdown — broadcast live across the country — there were 12 teams from all over Spain.

With Denham jammed into the bottom of the tower the contruction began.

He described it as like a rugby scrum with 200 people.

"From the outside it looks a little chaotic but everyone has their place."

"What an incredible thing to be part of. When you’re in the centre of it it’s like being part of a living breathing organism – your lungs are crushed from 300 people behind and all the weight from those on top is immense but its spread out across the base through everybody here."

"What a privilege, what a privilege."

The Xiquets attempted a nine-level tower but a rival team Vila Franca followed with a ten level tower, for only the second time in history.

The team was eliminated, but morale remained high as the nation celebrated an immense feat of human engineering..

"In the group, that is like a way of life. You have your own family but also in the human towers there's your big family," Oriel said.