The story of La Concha Beach

Look along the sand and you will see why it is called La Concha, 'the shell': the beach curves in a remarkably regular crescent around the bay. On average it stretches 1,350 metres and is about 40 metres wide, though the tide makes a big difference, since the beach is shallow and the sea often limits the space you can use.

The elegance of the fashionable 19th-century seaside resort still clings to this place, often named one of the most beautiful and famous city beaches in Europe, and since 2007 it has been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain. Literature has passed this way too: at the end of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, the hero Jake Barnes swims and dives here.

In May 1945 Léon Degrelle, a Belgian politician and one of the most notable Nazi collaborators, made a water landing at La Concha to escape the Allies, and he lived in exile in Spain until his death in 1994.