Why is the Church covered in scallop shells? You should not leave without knowing that you have on your right the only chapel in the world covered with scallop shells. Originally when it was built in 1909 it was not. His story is the result of chance.
The façade where the altar is, is oriented to the South and the rains continually hit its walls, producing humidity and deteriorating the structure. At the end of the 40s of the 20th century, Raimundo Riestra Calderón, II Marqués de Riestra, summoned a bricklayer from the town of O Grove, named Anselmo Millán, with the intention of offering him a solution to this problem that he sees - They had been dragging for almost four decades. The man advised him that a traditional way to prevent the penetration of water was to imbricate scallop shells on the entire surface, making the water slide down all of them without wetting the interior. He thought it was a great idea and accepted the proposal. When they finished covering the façade, the Marquis liked it so much that, as manager of the Spa, he ordered the entire church to be covered with shells. It was slow work that took several years, beginning in the late 1940s and ending in the early 1950s.
And one last detail, if you were transported 120 years back in time to the same point where you are, you would not step on land but you would be floating in the water together with the Church. Almost all of this garden was an old salt mine that loses its origins in the remotest past. It was filled in at the beginning of the 20th century.