Miguel Torres Ortega, Hostal Restaurante Las Conchas

front view of the hotel-restaurant "Las Conchas"

from their website

It could be assumed that houses decorated with shells are located close to the sea, and indeed that is often the case But there are exceptions. 

Some of such creations are located remote from the sea, such as above pictured hotel-restaurant Las Conchas (The Shells), which is located in the community of Azuaga, Spain, some 240 km remote from the nearest beach.

Life and works

The internet has virtually no biographical information about Miguel Torres Ortega (? - around 1986), who decorated exterior and interior of his hotel-restaurant with loads of shells. 

It is not clear when and where he was born. In fact, it is only known that he became the owner of the hotel in 1965, and in 1967 decided to decorate the building inside and outside with shells.

decorations in the interior 

picture (2013) by Lu de Di on website Foursquare

In her short contribution to the book Escultecturas margivagantes (2006), compiled by Antonio Ramirez, Maria del Mar Lozano Bartolozzi reports that in 1967 a party of people consumed a meal with many shellfish in the restaurant and that Miguel Torres then thought it was better not to throw away remaining shells, but to use these to decorate the property.

So he began a project that would keep him active until the early 1980s.

an old postcard with the shell decorated restaurant room 

The meals of the guests of the hotel and the visitors of the restaurant did not nearly produce enough shells to decorate the many pillars and pieces of wall, inside and outside. 

So there had to be collected by the sea. And thus it became customary to travel during the weekends -after closing time of the restaurant around midnight- to the city of Huelva with its kilometers of sandy beaches to collect shells there, a trip back and forth of about 480 km.

In making these trips, Torres was often accompanied by family members and friends.

The decorations in the interior are mainly present in the large restaurant room, which in addition to the buffet has many pillars.

the name of the site on a wall

picture (2012) from weblog Rutas Culturales

On the outside, the building, situated on the corner of two streets, has a fairly large wall surface that is completely covered with shells.

Both inside and outside the shells are basically arranged in a calm single-color pattern, supplemented with the name of the site (Las Conchas), repeating geometric arrangements (such as circles) or some  representations that have to do with the sea (such as fishes or ships).

one of the ships on the decorations of the exterior wall

(screenprint from streetview)

Torres died around 1986. 

His son Manuel took over the operation of hotel and restaurant and the care of the maintenance of the decorations

decorations around the entrance

picture (2013) by Rayko Lorenzo on website Foursquare

Documentation

* Maria del Mar Lozano Bartolozzi, "Epidermis marinera ornamental Casa de Azuaga (Badajoz)", in: Juan Antonio Ramirez, red, Escultecturas margivagantes: la arquitectura fantástica en España,  Madrid (Siruela), 2006. -p 331

* Website about Extremadura with a page about hotels in Azuaga with a description of Las Conchas and the story about the trips to the beach to collect shells.

Miguel Torres Ortega

Hostal Restaurant Las Conchas

Avenida de Extremadura 31

(on the corner of Avenida Estación)

06920 Azuaga, dept Badajoz, region Extremadura, Spain

exterior can be seen from the street

streetview

Manuel Palomares Félix, Villa Pechina

pictures are screen prints from the video by Serflac, 

see documentation

Tavernes de la Valldigna is a community of some 17000 inhabitants located along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, about 55 kilometers south of the regional capital Valencia. When editing this post about Villa Pechina in November 2017, the region was hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall, which is a curious coincidence with the fate that hit this art environment in 1996.

Life and works

Manuel Palomares (1924-2004), born in a modest family in Tavernes de la Valldigna, wouldn't enjoy much education because of the the Spanish civil war in the 1930s.

After World War II, in 1950 he moved to France to work there until in 1960 he returned to his birth town. Here he found a job in construction and he married in 1961. The couple would get three children.
,

In 1974, at age fifty, Palomares got a traffic accident. He was declared incapacitated for work and received an invalidity allowance.

Owning an inherited piece of land, he decided to use the free time he now had, to construct a building on this site, initially intended as storage for the garden tools.

But then he took a completely different direction. Although before he had no connection with creative activities at all, Palomares got the idea to decorate the construction with shells.

It would become a lifetime project

The house got a steel infrastructure and was bricked up with elements of reinforced concrete. Both the outer and the inner walls were covered with bivalve shells, which Palomares collected on the local beach, selecting especially the small and round ones named pechina shells. Palomares preferred to use white shells to decorate the larger parts of his art environment and maybe that's why he was nicknamed Pepe Blanco.

An outer staircase decorated with shells, flanked above and below by a couple of decorated columns, led to a rooftop that had been transformed into a terrace with various departments, each with its own capacity.

These structural parts were supplemented with a variety of shell-decorated elements standing on their own, such as a roof-table sheltered with an umbrella, all kinds of lamps, flower pots, benches, a large freestanding sun dial and also a dog house with a saddle roof.

In the early 1990s Villa Pechina had become a beautiful, harmonious site, but then Palomares became ill and could not properly maintain his creation.

In September 1996, the region was hit by heavy rainfall and strong winds, which caused a catastrophe with a widespread deal of devastation. Villa Pechina was also destroyed. The site was left for what it had become after the storm, a situation that continues until the current decade

Manuel Palomares passed away in 2004.

Documentation
* Francisco Javier Pérez Rojas, “Villa Pechina en Tavernes de Valldigna (Valencia)”, in Juan Antonio Ramirez (Ed) , Escultecturas margivagentes. La arquitectura fantástica en España. (pp. 308‐318). Madrid (Siruela), 2006 (on Google books a small passage)
* The site got a scholarly review in: Jo Farb Hernández, Singular Spaces. From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments, Seattle, 2013 (ISBN 978-0-615-78565-3). A shortened version of this review is available on SPACES website

Video
* Scenes of the site as it currently is on the South Spain trip video by Serflac (YouTube, starts at 1.13.34, cannot be embedded here)

Manuel Palomares Félix

Villa Pechina

Tavernas de Valldigna

site in decay, exact location unknown

Joyce and Paul Plimmer, Shell decorated house

picture via Google streetview

Above shell decorated house can be seen in Dartmouth, a city with currently some 5000 inhabitants, located in the south-west  of England on the west bank of the river Dart's estuary.

Life and works

The decorating of the facade and the interior of the property started in the 1970s by the Plimmer family who inhabited the house at that time. The story is that one day mr Plimmer went to an auction to see if he could buy some furniture and returned home with an antique collection of shells. This may have inspired the couple to use the shells to make some decorations, to experience then that they could not stop doing this....

Since Paul Plimmer had a job as a captain on a yacht and often was away from home, Joyce Plimmer has done most of the creative work, at least at the inside, and she probably was the driving force behind the project.

picture of an interior decoration,

 made available by Mrs Plimmer's daughter to 

Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch website

The facade combines geometric decorations with images of towers and maritime themes, like an anchor and various ships. In the interior the rooms have been abundantly decorated, both walls and some ceilings.

Paul and Joyce Plimmer had three children, and one of the two boys when interviewed by a journal, relates that he and his brother were commissioned to collect shells on the local beaches.

When in 2012 Joyce Plimmer, who apparently then was living alone in the house, had to be included into a nursing home, the house was put on sale.

Much to the delight of the Plimmer family the new owner, Louise Cotton, a Dartmouth resident who knew and loved the shell decorations from childhood on, told the newspapers that she would keep the decorations as they were and repair these if necessary.

In 2019 the decorations on the inside have been removed

As noted in a comment on this post, in 2019 the house has been designated a holiday home and in that regard the interior has been renewed, including the removal of the interior decorations. The exterior decorations are still present.

Documentation
* Newspaper article in Mail Online, January 21, 2013

Joyce and Paul Plimmer 
Shell decorated house
47 Lake Street
Dartmouth, Devon, South West England, UK

exterior can be seen from the street

José María Garrido, El Museo del Mar / The museum of the sea

this picture and the next two from
weblog los necios se conjuran (December 2008)

This art environment in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Andalucía, Spain, doesn't exist anymore. Economic interests were more important than cultural considerations.

Life and works

José María Garrido (1925-2011), from the Spanish community of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the city of Cadiz (Spain), was a sailor, but when in 1959 his best friend drowned in the sea, he decided to quit seamanship and to stay on the mainland for the rest of his life. 

In honor of this friend, in 1960 he began embellishing his house with with various items related to the sea and to seamanship and with shells he collected from beaches around.

Garrido explaining

The Museo del Mar las Caracolas had around 80.000 shells. Together with all other items relating to the sea and a lot of placards with explanatory texts by Garrido, these covered all walls of all rooms of the house.

In the early years of the museum Garrido was always ready to meet visitors and to explain the collection. If tourists would not find the site on their own, he would look for them on the adjacent squares and persuade them to come and take a look.

 

In later years, when Garrido became too old to entertain visitors, the museum only occasionally could be visited by those who were allowed an appointment.

The museum, with its fully decorated interior, ranked as an art environment, a designation that was reinforced by a very special construction Garrido had added to the roof of his house.

On the oblong flat roof he built from scrap material a fully equipped ship, with a flight, masts, gunwales, a sleeping cabin, you name it. 

this picture courtesy of Ketari

site not available anymore

The local authorities were not amused. They preferred that this ship's construction would sail off to the seven seas, in order to realize plans of urban reconstruction.

this picture (2007) from the weblog Crónicas de une cámera

Garrido however announced that he wanted to maintain the house, which dated from 1503 and was located is in one of the oldest neighborhoods of the community. Various placards announced that this ship would not move away, that it belonged to Sanlúcar, that it was no al Derrida

The struggle between Garrido and the authorities has continued until the artist died, although, according to an article in a local newspaper, in November 2010 Garrido and his family were invited by the (new) mayor to come to the town hall to be honored and hear words of praise for his contribution to the city. 

Garrido died in 2011.

The museum doesn't exist anymore. After Garrido's death the authorities succeeded in implementing their plans for urban renewal, The house/museum was razed to the ground

Documentation

* Derek Workman, He sees seashells - Museo de las Caracolas, article in weblog "Spain Uncovered", undated (probably around 2010)

* Jo Farb Hernández, "José Maria Garrido: Sailor without the Sea", in: Elsewhere, International Journal of Self-Taught and Outsider Art, issue 1 (August 2013), pp. 91-104.
* Article on SPACES website (2013)

first published July 2010, last revised November 2023

José María Garrido
El Museo del Mar 
Calle del Truco
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Andalucía, Spain
the museum doesn't exist anymore

Alfred Pedersen, Sneglehuset / Shell decorated house

this picture and the next two (2007)
courtesy of Dietmar Müller (Flickr)

Sneglehuset is the name of a shell decorated house located in Thyborøn in the community of Bjornehaven, Denmark.

Bjornehaven is one of the main fishery ports of Denmark, so it is no surprise that this shell house was created by a fisherman.

Life and works

Alfred Kristian Pedersen (May 20, 1890 - October 19, 1977) was born in the community of Løkken, Denmark. In 1921 he married Paula Cecilie Christensen (1900-1976). The couple first lived in Thyborøn, the place where Mrs Pedersen was born, then they moved to Hirtshals in 1942, to settle in Rønland in 1943.

Pedersen was a fisherman.

In the late 1940s the couple had to leave Rønland and they moved to Thyborøn, a moving Mrs Pedersen didn't like very much. The story says that Alfred Pedersen promised her that he would make their new house in Thyborøn so beautiful, that people from all around would come to take a look.

So in 1949 he began decorating the house with shells, a project he would continue for some 25 years, until in 1974, when he was in his early eighties, he considered the project as finished.

Once he had decorated the exterior walls of his house, he decided to build another building adjacent to the original one, this in order to have more walls to decorate.

In this way the 14 m high tower, that is part of the complex, was established.

The shell decorations on the exterior wall in general are applied to a blue or gray surface. The interior has been abundantly decorated too, although the basic color there is not blue or gray, but a kind of yellow-brown.

Inside there are also folk art items on display, such as little ships in a bottle made by Danish fishermen during the long, dark winter months.

picture from touristic website "visit Denmark"

Alfred Pedersen passed away in October 1977, his wife had died a year before, in October 1976.

The house became a museum

In 1975 the decorated house, named Sneglehuset, was opened as a museum, managed by the next generation of the family.

Many websites refer to the site from a touristic point of view, most of them repeating the same, generally known facts.

In 2019 the family transferred the management of the site to a couple outside the family, namely Ken Koustrup and Hanne Mette Kirkedal.

Documentation
* Website of the museum
* A series of pictures of the site (January 2018) on Alltagsknipse weblog

Video
* Video by Jakob Frandsen ( YouTube , 6'04", uploaded May 2012)

first published December 2009, last revised February 2022

Alfred Pedersen

Sneglehuset
Sneglevej 9
7680 Thyborøn, Denmark
open for the public (see their website for visiting hours)
streetview

François Bothorel, Maison des coquillages / Shell decorated house

pictures courtesy of the webmaster of the 
Plouescat heritage website (link not available anymore)

Plouescat is a seaside resort of some 3400 inhabitants along the coast of Finistère in Brittany, France.

Life and works

François Bothorel, who lives in this community,  has made something special of his house.

He has decorated its interior with shells he patiently collects on the local beaches. All walls have been decorated, but also many items that keep memories of local heritage alive.

For example, the shell decorated utensils on the picture above would be used in households to make butter: at the right there is kind of a centrifuge to separate milk and cream and at the left there is a device to transform the cream into the famous Breton butter (salted as preferred with salt from the salt cellar in between).

another exposition of utensils, a weighing machine, 

a wheel from a chariot and a ?

(it's a wheelbarrow...see comments) 

Bothorel also added shells to a number of machines that in former days were used on the farm, like the one in the next picture, a device to cut plants and other supplies to feed horses.

Update 2017

The first version of this post was published in November 2009. After that date, the internet had no new information about this site. 

picture (October 2017) by 

Tiramisu Bootfighter, Facebook

But then in October 2017 above photo was published on Facebook in the context of the project La Valise, a traveling gallery along France insolite, about which was reported on Facebook.

The picture shows a person seated at a table with a table top of Saint Jacob's shells. The bench has the same decoration. 

I automatically supposed the seated person was Bothorel, but Francis Davtd, who visited and wrote about many art environments in France, informed me that he recognized Pierre Darcel. also from Brittany.

Actual situation

So it turns out that in 2017 this art environment is still extant and it is likely that Bothorel by appointment still will welcome visitors who would like to take a look at his creations.

François Bothorel
14 lot Pont Ar Manach
29430 Plouescat, dept Finistère, region Brittany, France
can be visited on appointment

Francisco Palma Jimenez, Casa de las Conchas / Shell decorated house

pictures courtesy of Lala Ema,
  (from her weblog My Castle In Spain)

Life and works

Francisco Palma Jimenez (1933), who is also known as Paco, was born in Albuñuelas, a small community of some 1100 inhabitants in the Granada area in Spain.

His house, locally known as la Casa de las Conchas (the Shell House) has been decorated with millions of shells Paco himself collected on the Spanish beaches, a project he began in the 1960s and which kept him busy for some forty years.

As can be seen on above picture, Paco also used pumpkins to decorate the house, not just two or three on a tray like most of us would do, but some 5000, all attached to the ceiling.

Then, as pictured above, Palma has also been active in making sculptures and he has collected all kind of machines which in the past were used on farms, some being antiquarian.

Another activity of Palma is making all kinds of rope craft items, like baskets.

All things considered: very creative, very industrious, very admirable....

Currently (2015) in his early eighties, Palma had a very industrious life. To earn his living he worked in agriculture, hiring himself to harvest olives in Spain and tomatoes in France. He is not a rich man in terms of money, but he considers himself to be rich in terms of the satisfaction he has earned from the creative activities in his life.

And, as people who have visited him reported, he is a very friendly person, always ready to open the doors of his house for people who would like to admire what he created.

Documentation/more pictures
* More pictures on the local website adurcal.com

* Article (September 2006) in regional journal Ideal
* Article on SPACES website (added October 2015)

first published September 2009, last revised August 2015

Francisco Palma Jimenez
Casa de las Conchas
8 Calle Moralès
Albuñuelas, Granada, Andalucía, Spain

Francisco del Rio Cuenca, Casa de las Conchas / Shell decorated house

picture from a touristic website (not extant anymore) 

The story is, that one day in a street of the Spanish city of Montoro a truck lost a load of shells. It would have been laying there for some time, if not someone living nearby had got the idea that this mess could be recuperated into an art environment.

Life and work

Francisco del Rio Cuenca (1926-2010) was that man living nearby. It was 1960 and recuperating a truck load of shells became a lifetime project, that kept del Rio Cuenca active for the rest of his life.

this picture an the next one 
courtesy of el jardin de jacinta (Flickr, 2008)

He decorated the exterior walls of the house, all three patios and most of the interior, arranging the shells in colorful patterns, or assembling them into texts with information about who made this art environment and when.

In 2008, when del Rio Cuenca was 82, he had reached the limits of what the house could bear in terms of decoration (reportedly he has processed some 115 million shells). But his creativity had no limits and the local authorities gave him permission to continue his decorative activity on a public plot in the vicinity of his home.

His creative activity was appreciated by the people of Montoro and there a lot of people around who supported the project by providing shells.

The house became a touristic must see, sometimes called the seventh wonder of Cordoba.

Francisco del Rio Cuenca died in 2010. A grandson took care of the house and welcomed visitors. As far as is know no decision by public authorities has been made about ensuring the future of the site.

Autumn 2013 the house was offered for sale by Del Rio Cuenca's heirs. However, it proved impossible to sell the house and now it is a tourist attraction that can be visited. 

Interested parties should contact the local tourist office.

Situation in 2021

The picture above and the one below, made in November 2021 by Tiramisu Bootfighter, who traveled through Spain in the context of his project La Valise, Galerie Ambulante, show that the site at that time still was in good condition.

Documentation

* A scholarly review of the site in: Jo Farb Hernandez, Singular Spaces. From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments, Seattle (Raw Vision, SPACES, San José State University), 2013. A short version of this review is available on SPACES website

Video

* A video by El Mayor Abrazo  (2'11", YouTube, uploaded October 2008)

first published August 2009, last revised November 2021

Francisco del Rio Cuenca
Casa de las Conchas
Montoro, Cordoba, Andalucía, Spain
can be visited on appointment