The Casa de las Conchas in Salamanca is an old urban palace in Gothic style with Plateresque elements. Its construction began in 1493 and was completed in 1517. Inside, the courtyard with its mixtilinear arches, staircase and coffered ceiling are of particular interest.

It is a palace representative of the new court nobility of the 16th century. The building was commissioned by Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, a knight of the Order of Santiago, professor of law at the University, of which he was rector, and a member of the Royal Council of Castile. Under his patronage, the Talavera chapel was also built in the cloister of the Old Cathedral.

Shortly after Rodrigo died, that same year his son, Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, who also in that year married a niece of the Duke of Benavente, Juana de Pimentel, and they became the parents of Pedro Maldonado Pimentel, a communist leader.

It is an original building that combines Gothic, Renaissance and Mudejar elements. The most outstanding feature is undoubtedly its façade decorated with more than 300 shells and multiple coats of arms and coats of arms. The decorative valuation of the wall is one of the characteristics of the Renaissance, the façades of the urban palaces are covered with ornamental elements such as diamond points or peaks. The originality of the Casa de las Conchas lies not only in the motif chosen, but also in the arrangement of the shells, which is done in a staggered pattern in the Mudejar tradition of diamond-shaped decoration. Around 1701 the building was extended towards the Rúa.

The main façade features a lintelled doorway with two decorative orders. On the upper part there is a coat of arms of the Maldonado family framed by mouldings of curved and straight lines, while the lower part of the lintel depicts dolphins, a Renaissance symbol of love, together with plant motifs. Also important are the four large windows in Gothic style and of exceptional beauty and variation, as they are all different from each other; this asymmetry is characteristic of the Gothic style. Finally, we must mention the stately tower, which towered majestically over the rest of the city, thus reinforcing the message of power that the nobleman wanted to send to the rest of the city. Precisely because of this, the tower was demolished, losing two thirds of its height, by order of Carlos I and as a punishment for the Maldonado family, whose members included the communist captains Francisco, executed after the battle of Villalar, and Pedro Maldonado, executed in 1522.

Inside there is a courtyard with a fusion of medieval, Mudejar and Renaissance elements. It measures approximately 18.80 m x 16.80 m.2 On the ground floor, the mixtilinear arches, so typical of Salamanca, stand out. In the upper part, the arches, some of which are mixtilinear, rest on white Carrara marble columns that culminate in laureate capitals. The parapets of the balconies are decorated with honeycomb motifs and basketwork with a clear Mudejar influence. Finally, the roof is crowned with a cresting formed by fleur-de-lis flowers accompanied by gargoyles. The coats of arms of both families are repeated on both the upper and lower floors. In the centre is a well which, in its time, guaranteed the supply of drinking water.

Finally, mention should be made of the three flights of stairs leading to the upper floor. The staircase does not face the entrance hall, but follows the Mediterranean tradition of preserving the intimacy of the home from prying eyes. The first flight opens with the figure of a dog bearing the Pimentel family coat of arms; the dog guards and preserves the intimacy of the home. The second section opens with a lion holding the coat of arms of the Maldonado family, the third section opens with the union of the coats of arms of the Pimentel and Maldonado families.

The most outstanding elements are the window grilles and the coffered ceiling in the courtyard. The grilles, which have been described as one of the best examples of Spanish Gothic wrought ironwork, were cold-worked by masters from Salamanca. Their function is not only ornamental but also to protect the privacy and security of the inhabitants of the house.

The coffered ceiling on the first floor of the courtyard is made up of hexagonal motifs surrounding a square. All of these motifs are richly polychromed in white, blue and gold. The inside of the hexagons are decorated with vegetal motifs, while the inside of the squares are decorated with quatrefoils.