This change started around the end of the XVIII century but the confusion between the Balls and Castells lasted well into the beginning of the XIX century. In fact up until the middle of this century the Collas were also called Balls de Valencians.

In 1805, in Valls, the first stable groups of castellers were mentioned: the pagesos (farmers) and the menestrals (craftsmen). That’s why Valls is considered the cradle of Castells.
The dances also evolved early in Tarragona. Between the years 1820 to 1830 we have constant mention of two Balls de Valencian groups, the pagesos (farmers) and the pescadors (fishermen) that became the embryos of the future castell groups.
The Castells themselves progressed rapidly. Those of seven and eight levels were made up to 1846 when the epoch of the large constructions began with the crowing of the first three of nine with folre in Valls for the feast day of San Joan.

The town of Vilafranca del Penedés also put its name on the casteller map in the middle of the century when the groups from Valls performed at their town feast day. It was the guilds of the Roser and the Muixerra who contracted the groups from Valls and who would later give their names to these Collas from Valls.

In Tarragona we have the first documented evidence of the appearance of a casteller group, using modern criteria, at the end of 1885. They were called the Xiquets de Tarragona or the Colla de la Mercé. This group performed until the end of 1894 and their maximum Castells were the two of seven, the four of eight and the pilar of six.

The high point of this golden age was seen on the feast day of Santa Tecla in 1881, when the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls completed the four of nine without folre. We should mention that castellers from Tarragona always participated in the Castells from Valls. The Tarragoni Jaume Tarragó y Plana, better known as L’Esperidió, climbed as a segon (second level) in that mythic castell.

Up until the end of the century and the beginning of the XXth the casteller exhibitions saw an important decline. The colla of the city of Tarragona disappeared and in Valls they could only do Castells of seven levels.

After a period of very hard economic difficulties a certain amount stability arrived during the twenties that propelled a revival of the Collas of Valls. In ancient Tárraco the new airs and a new generation allowed the birth of the Colla Xiquets de Tarragona in the year 1925. This group together with the creation the following year of the Nens del Vendrell confirmed the recuperation.

But in the casteller tradition of which we are already accustomed to, the first internal divisions began to appear which resulted in the breakup of the Xiquets de Tarragona. It was the year 1930. The result was the creation of the Colla Vella de la Mercé and the Colla Nova de Sant Magí.

It was during this period when castell of eight levels reappeared.