El Club · Comillas

The Sobrellano Chapel-Pantheon is a funerary chapel with the function of a family pantheon, integrated in the monumental complex of the Sobrellano Palace in Comillas, Cantabria. It was conceived as a "small-scale cathedral", with religious and funerary use, and is one of the most important heritage landmarks of the town because of its connection with the I Marquis of Comillas, Antonio López López. Its construction is dated between 1878 and 1881, being previous to the palace. The project was the work of Joan Martorell and the building was consecrated on August 28, 1881, during the visit of Alfonso XII and Queen Maria Cristina to Comillas. Due to its chronology and formal solution, it is ascribed to the neo-Gothic style, with references to English and Central European Perpendicular Gothic. Among its patrimonial features are the ambulatory, which reinforces its character as a "miniature cathedral", and the sepulchral space destined to the lineage of the Marquises of Comillas. The municipal record of Comillas also mentions furniture by Antoni Gaudí and sculpture by Llimona and Vallmitjana, which underlines the artistic interest of the interior. The building is part of the Sobrellano complex and responds to the representative and devotional program of the López family, in the context of the Indian boom and the historicist architecture of the late 19th century in Cantabria.

Gaudí’s Capricho, also known as Villa Quijano, is a stately home or residential palace located in the Sobrellano neighborhood of Comillas (Cantabria), very close to the Chapel-Pantheon and the complex of monuments commissioned by the family of the Marquises of Comillas. It is one of Antonio Gaudí’s most unique works outside of Catalonia and today serves as a visitor center and house museum. It was built between 1883 and 1885 at the request of Máximo Díaz de Quijano and is part of Gaudí’s Modernist period, featuring Orientalist elements and Neo-Gothic-inspired details. The building was designated a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1969 and later a Site of Cultural Interest. Its construction was linked to Comillas’s summer and residential boom in the 19th century, when the town became a summer retreat for the elite. Among its most notable features are the tower topped with ceramic tiles, the expressive use of exposed brick, the tile panels, and the integration of wrought iron, color, and plant and musical motifs. The composition of the complex reflects Gaudí’s desire to create an original, highly personal home, adapted to the site and the surrounding garden. After various phases of use and restoration, the property regained part of its original appearance and today stands as one of Comillas’s principal heritage landmarks, both for its architectural value and for its direct connection to the spread of Modernism in Cantabria.

The Mirador de La Corneja is a natural lookout point located on the western coast of Cantabria, near Comillas, along the Ruiloba coastline and on the C-131 highway that connects to Santillana del Mar. The site is situated on a stretch of cliff-lined coastline covered in vegetation, typical of the Atlantic landscape of this coastal strip. The municipality of Comillas covers an area of 18.61 km² and stretches from the Portillo cove to the La Rabia estuary, with the Cantabrian Sea to the north. The viewpoint’s main attraction is the panoramic views of the cliffs and the Cantabrian Sea, with a vista that is especially breathtaking at sunset. It is a stopping point to admire the coastal terrain, the shoreline, and the transition between the vegetation and the rocky cliffs, in a landscape that is highly characteristic of the Cantabrian coast. Its appeal is primarily scenic and tourist-oriented, serving as a vantage point for observing the coastline and a key stop on local itineraries along the coast of Comillas and Ruiloba. At the top of the valley stands the chapel of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, next to a pine forest and the restaurant El Remedio, one of the best places in the area to enjoy traditional Cantabrian cuisine and fresh seafood. The best time to visit is at sunset on a clear day, when the sun dips into the waters of the Cantabrian Sea, creating a spectacle of colors and reflections that only nature can offer.

The Bolao Viewpoint and Watermill is a natural site located on the coast of Cóbreces, in the municipality of Alfoz de Lloredo, Cantabria, characterized by steep cliffs rising approximately 70 meters above the sea. Physically, the site combines two distinctive elements: a lookout point with a bench on the southern side of the cliff and the ruins of an old watermill, located next to the mouth of the Arroyo de la Presa. The mill, now abandoned and in a state of disrepair, was built to grind wheat and corn using the energy from a small artificial waterfall created by a dam on the stream. From the viewpoint, visitors can enjoy a spectacular panoramic view of the open sea, the Cantabrian coast, and the rock formation known as “Indio del Bolao” or “Indian Face,” naturally sculpted into the rock. The site’s significance lies in its incalculable scenic value, its inclusion in Cantabria’s tourist guides, and its status as a destination for enjoying sunsets. The best time to visit is at sunset, when the light highlights the colors of the sea and the coast, or in spring and summer to enjoy more stable weather conditions.

The Palacio de Sobrellano is a monumental palace or manor house in Comillas (Cantabria), designed as the summer residence of the 1st Marquis of Comillas, Antonio López y López. It is located in the historic district of Sobrellano, on the outskirts of the historic center, in an area closely linked to the town’s boom in the 19th century. Construction took place between 1882 and 1888, based on a design by architect Joan Martorell, with Cristóbal Cascante serving as construction manager. The building is in the Neo-Gothic style, with references to English civil Gothic and Venetian-inspired design elements, as well as Muslim-inspired decorative elements in some of the reliefs. The palace stands out for its rectangular floor plan, its richly ornamented façade, and the quality of its interior decoration, which features furniture and paintings linked to artists and collaborators from the Catalan Modernist circle, such as Camilo Oliveras, Juan Roig, and Eduardo Llorens. It was part of an aristocratic complex designed to reflect the social prestige of the marquis and his family in Comillas. It is currently open to the public via guided tours and is part of Cantabria’s cultural heritage. Its tourist appeal lies both in its architectural value and in the historical-artistic complex it forms with the Sobrellano Chapel-Pantheon.

Comillas Beach is an urban beach on the coast of Comillas, on the west coast of Cantabria, with golden sand and a sandy front of about 900 meters long and about 40 meters wide. It is located in an environment open to the Cantabrian Sea, with moderate waves and a coastal landscape closely linked to the town and its promenade. The resource is of interest for being the main beach of the urban area and for combining bathing, strolling and views of the Cantabrian coast. Its location, in a small and coastal municipality, makes it a very accessible space of intense summer use, with beach services and regular presence of the public. From the landscape point of view, it is part of the coastal strip of Comillas, a municipality that opens to the sea between smooth reliefs and the area of the Cantabrian Marina. The Coastal Demarcation itself has processed protection actions in this section, which confirms its condition as a space exposed to the coastal dynamics and to the needs of conservation and management of the maritime-terrestrial public domain.

Oyambre Beach is a wide coastal sandy area in the municipality of Comillas, integrated in the environment of the Oyambre Natural Park, one of the best preserved coastal areas in western Cantabria. This strip combines beach, dunes, estuary, marshes and cliffs, within an Atlantic landscape of great ecological and visual value, with a protected area of nearly 5,758 hectares in the park as a whole. The most attractive thing for the visitor is its open and little transformed character: sand, dunes and the presence of the Cantabrian Sea in front of a green landscape of meadows and forests. The beach is interesting both for bathing and strolling and for observing the environment, especially at low tides and in the dune sectors, where the natural dynamics of the Cantabrian coast can be appreciated. Its relevance is not only scenic, but also environmental. The beach was part of the social conflict that led to the protection of the area as a natural park in 1988, in response to urban pressure on the dunes and the coast. This protection has helped to preserve a place of remarkable landscape variety, today identified as one of the natural symbols of Comillas and the coast of Oyambre.