Photography submitted to Qurator's Photo Quest | Patterns
Hi,
During my last holidays in Galicia (Spain) I visited the island of La Toja with my friends Eduardo and Miguel, and found on this small island of less than one km2 a chapel of great external beauty and a perfectly manicured environment with its gardens and palm trees.
As one approaches the chapel, the human eye quickly distinguishes a very striking relief on the outer walls of the chapel, noticing that the exterior roughness is in the shape of seashells.
At first, when I was still a few dozen metres away from the chapel, I thought that the shells had been engraved on the stone of the church, but I was even more surprised when I realised that the entire exterior of the chapel is actually covered with scallop shells.
To make sure that not only the main façade of the church was covered with shells, I decided to walk around the chapel and as you can see in the perspective of the left side of the chapel, the whole of this side is also covered with shells.
Afterwards, I continued my way to the right side of the temple where there is an annex building which I believe to be the sacristy as it is on one side of the main dome and was also covered with shells.
I then approached the church and could see that the size of the shells was practically symmetrical between them and that each of them is attached to the shell below, providing a very beautiful pattern with a great symmetry that is very pleasing to the eye.
After this inspection of the surroundings, I went to an information point and was able to read that this chapel was originally covered with cement and paint, but because it is a few metres from an estuary, the humidity was ravaging the temple.
Therefore, due to the fact that in the area there is a large amount of vineyards and the shellfish activity is one of the most important in the area, they began to collect scallop shells and in the 1950s they began to insulate the church with this material.
What is the benefit of this material as a covering?
The main advantage of the shells as a covering lies in the fact that it is a relatively cheap material in the area due to the large quantity of this shellfish in the estuary and mainly because the calcium carbonate that makes up the shells is a material that is very resistant to humidity and allows for a natural insulation of the temple.
Inside, the temple is very simply decorated with two benches of well-kept wooden benches and a large shell with the image of the Virgin of Carmen in the centre.
I hope you liked my first participation in this community with a temple with such curious aesthetic characteristics on the outside.
Best regards.
