Spanish police arrest tourists suspected of scaling 500-year-old building

OFFICERS in Salamanca City claimed they have caught two tourists from the United States allegedly attempting to climb up a 16^th century building.

Local Police said they were called out in the early hours of Friday morning. They alleged the suspects, aged 20 and 21 and studying Spanish, were spotted trying to scale the Casa de las Conchas.

Officers were deployed to the building, listed as a Site of Cultural Interest, and found the suspects at the scene.

The 20 and 21-year-old were then taken to the city’s Local Police station before proceedings were sent to the courts, according to Salamanca City Council.

The Casa de las Conchas, or House of the Shells in English, is a gothic-style mansion house which was built between 1493 and 1517.

Construction began on the orders of Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, a knight of the order of Santiago and a Law Professor at the University of Salamanca.

The Casa de las Conchas takes its name from the shell ornaments which cover its walls. The Count of Santa Coloma passed the building over to local authorities to cover tax payments in 1997 and it was taken into Spanish government ownership in 2005.