The House of Shells is one of Salamanca's most distinctive buildings: a 15th-century nobleman's palace whose exterior walls are decorated with around 300 carved stone scallop shells. The shells were the emblem of the Order of Santiago, to which the original owner, Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, belonged; they also evoke the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, for which Salamanca was a major waypoint.
The building now serves as a public library, and the interior courtyard — a two-storey plateresque arcade with elaborate ironwork — is open to visitors free of charge. It is one of the best examples of late Gothic civic architecture in Castile.