Gaudí's Caprice

The Capricho de Gaudí, also known as Villa Quijano, is a manor house or residential palace located in the neighborhood of Sobrellano, in Comillas (Cantabria), very close to the Chapel-Pantheon and the monumental complex promoted by the family of the Marquises of Comillas. It is one of the most unique works of Antonio Gaudí outside Catalonia and today it is used as a place to visit and a house museum. It was built between 1883 and 1885, commissioned by Máximo Díaz de Quijano, and is part of Gaudí's modernist period, with orientalist features and neo-Gothic-inspired resources. The building was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1969 and later declared an Asset of Cultural Interest. Its construction was linked to the summer and residential boom of Comillas in the 19th century, when the town became a summer resort for the elite. Among its most outstanding elements are the tower topped with ceramics, the expressive use of exposed brick, the tile panels and the integration of wrought iron, color and plant and musical ornamentation. The composition of the complex responds to Gaudí's desire to create an original, highly personal home, adapted to the site and the surrounding garden. After various stages of use and restoration, the building recovered part of its original appearance and today is one of the main heritage landmarks of Comillas, both for its architectural value and its direct relationship with the spread of modernism in Cantabria.