You've now arrived at one of the most photographed façades in Spain. The house in front of you is the Casa de las Conchas, the House of Shells. It was built between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries by a man named Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, who was the Maestrescuela, the chief academic officer, of the University of Salamanca. He was also a knight of the Order of Santiago. Now count the shells. Actually, don't, because there are roughly three hundred of them, carved individually into the sandstone. Everyone is a scallop shell, the symbol of the Order of Santiago, founded in the twelfth century. This comprised warrior-monks who defended pilgrims and fought in the Reconquista, the nearly eight hundred-year series of military campaigns by Christian kingdoms in northern Iberia to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule. Additionally, these shells are the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of Saint James, the great pilgrimage route that has brought walkers across northern Spain for over a thousand years. Now, there’s a popular legend about these shells. It is said that one of them contains a hidden treasure, and the house's owner told his daughter's suitor that he could have her hand in marriage if he could identify the correct shell. But no one ever did. What's real is more interesting. Rodrigo Arias Maldonado was one of the most powerful men in late fifteenth-century Castile, and this house was a statement. The shells advertised his membership in a prestigious military order. The coat of arms you can see with five lilies was his wife's family crest, the Pimentels. Together, this facade announced that the inhabitants were connected to God, to the Crown, and to the Order. Here's the connection I want you to hold on to. This same Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, the man who covered his house in shells, was also the patron of a ceiling painting that you’ll see later on this tour. He commissioned both in the same year. He was the kind of person who could casually pay for the most ambitious private residence in Castile and the most ambitious painted vault in the university in the same decade. The Casa de las Conchas is now a public library. You can walk into the courtyard for free. And you should, because the courtyard is actually more beautiful than the façade. Our next stop is just behind you. However, I have pinned it on the map to avoid any confusion.