While travelling through Spain, one should definitely visit a small, beautiful, old-fashioned town of Tarragona. Stone-cobbled, narrow streets rarely missing people, especially at September, when the most famous, colorful and interesting holiday takes its place here – Santa Tecla Day. We were lucky to take part in this event – despite we didn’t know about it before our Spanish trip got started. We chose Tarragona due to the other reasons – nice, picturesque views, long seashore, and Port Aventura, situated only a few train stations from the town. Adventure park, one of the biggest in Europe, has always been for me «a must-seen place». So, we took a Moscow-Barcelona flight, arrived at the host-town of Blau Grana, took a bus, and an hour later we were standing at the centre of Tarragona, looking at a very special monument:
What the hell that is, you wonder? Well, this is one of the most popular Tarragona traditions – human towers. I don’t know exactly, how did it appear, but it still seems to be one of the most surprising things I ever seen. Two teams (or more) build a tower from the people, standing one after another. The first row consists of the big, strong men, whose back, neck and shoulders are the foundation of the tower, and the platform for the upper-standings. Higher the tower grows, more light-weight people climb to its top. Women, teenagers, and, Holy Christ, children. Instead of the star, shining at the very top, the smallest (and bravest, by the way), youngster, gets here in the full height, and trying not to fall down. When higher the tower is, those team wins.
Each team represents different town (village), dressed in its own clothes, men from the lower row also wearing wide belts over their loins – in order to take the huge load. It seems very dangerous, especially when a small kid with no safety ropes climbing up, like a monkey. But you know what – once we saw the tower fell down, and it was done so… great! It looked like the house of cards broke – row by row, layer by layer, each trying to support the other. The men at the lowest row just caught the teenagers falling from the top, and nobody – none! – got injured. The best teamwork ever.
Actually, the human tower contest is one of the main events at Santa-Tecla Holiday. But it is not the only one. People walking down the streets in masquerade dresses, performing some kind of national dances, enjoying the wedding ceremonies (it is said to be the most popular wedding time), sing songs and shouts, visiting the Tarragona Cathedral, where the relics of Santa Tecla found its place, and just having fun. In the evening, at the central square there’s a great disco party. And – just imagine – the holiday lasts more than a week! Nobody actually works (well done, siesta), except the bars and yoghurt ice-cream sellers (what a delicious thing!).
I fell in love with Tarragona from the first sight). Sorry for the photos – I’m far-far away from a professional photographer. Nevertheless, the town seems to be amazing – and its worth visiting.
To be continued.