Directly across the street from the Real Clerecía de San Marcos, a colossal baroque church, is the Casa de las Conchas. One of the city’s most charming buildings, it was named after the scallop shells hanging onto its façade. The owner of the building, Dr. Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, was a doctor at the court of Isabel and a member of the Order of Santiago, whose symbol is the shell. Legend has it that the Jesuits bought and leveled every house in the region to build their college, except the Casa de las Conchas, even though they offered to pay a gold coin for each shell.
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