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Points of interest in Comillas (EN)

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Gaudi's whim

This summer residence was built in 1883 by order of Máximo Díaz de Quijano, brother-in-law of the Marque de Comillas and under the direction of the architect Cascante Colom according to Gaudi's plan. The caprice consists of a semi-basement, floor and attic, with a side tower that stands out for its verticality in a markedly horizontal set. On the main floor there is a double-height living room, a dining room and a few rooms, while in the semi-basement and in the attic were the kitchen, the garage and other spaces for the service. On an impressive stone plinth, the facades show the alternation of horizontal strips of exposed brick and ceramic friezes with the plant motifs of the flower and the sunflower leaf, also present in the upper frieze, in the tower and in the headers of the openings. Above the entrance porch, formed by sturdy columns with curious capitals decorated with naturalistic representations of palm leaves and swallows, rises the lookout tower, inside which a spiral staircase leads up to the highest art, finished in a small temple. Both above the porch and at the top of the tower there is a circular iron railing with uprights that take the form of a whiplash and is decorated with vine leaves. Other outstanding elements are the iron balconies, which have wooden slatted benches to sit on and a canopy, also made of iron, and the sash windows, which, when opened or closed, sound with different tones, thanks to counterweights.

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Sobrellano Palace

The Sobrellano complex, which began with the chapel-pantheon, was completed with the work on the palace. In 1888 the palace of Sobrellano was inaugurated, in which different trends were collected, ranging from English civil Gothic to the memory of Venetian palaces, through a treatment of the reliefs close to the Muslim muqarnas. In any case, the structure of the building is not very Gothic. The simple Palladian scheme (with a central hall distributor and monumental staircase of white marble, with double shot and zenithal illumination by a skylight of polychrome stained glass) generates an almost perfect parallelepiped, barely broken by recesses. Such a monotonous scheme is broken by ornamentation, generous on the main façade, while on the entrance façade it is more restrained. This palace is actually a space to be shown, a space of apparatus loaded with objects and elements that reflected the personality of the Marquises of Comillas. The great hall was conceived as the symbolic center of the palace, decorated with eight panels painted by Eduardo Llorens, showing the contributions that the Marquis' family had made to the recent history of Spain.

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Chapel Pantheon Chapel of the Marquises of Comillas

It is part of the Sobrellano complex, constituting a clear example of a picturesque reaction to classicism. For the construction, the architect followed English and Central European perpendicular Gothic models, resulting in a miniature cathedral, according to the deeply religious spirit of the architect and Don Claudio López Bru, second Marquis of Comillas. The Pantheon of Don Claudio López y López and Doña Benita Díaz de Quijano (1881) is an outstanding example of Catalan modernist sculpture in Cantabria. The sculptures of the "Plegaria" and the "Resignation" denote the influence of the Rodin style and seem to relate to the light and the atmosphere that surrounds them; all three were made by outstanding Catalan modernist sculptors such as Jose LLimona y Barbany and Agapito Vallmitjana. Inside the chapel, the presbytery was sumptuously ornamented with the polished bronze altar and table, the frontal with the symbols of the Gospels and the Agnus Dei, and the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The furniture designed by Gaudi was also added, still with a Gothic air, but announcing modernism. The inauguration of the chapel-pantheon coincided with the visit of Alfonso XII to Comillas in 1881.

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Comillas Major Seminary

After the construction of the Sobrellano complex, the only thing left for the Marquis to do was to promote a great "pious work" that would not only perpetuate his name but also help him to "earn his place in heaven". That is why he studied the possibility of building a large educational center of secondary education, finally it was destined to the Seminary of the Poor (later Pontifical University) directed by the Jesuits, whose teaching model triumphed since the seventeenth century. The plan of the building copied the usual structure of the buildings of the company (il modo nostro"), basically it is to bring together the different sections of the school around two arcaded courtyards. A rectangular plan is used, with the church framed by the two courtyards. Spacious churches were built, with easy access from the interior and exterior, eliminating the deep choirs. The construction was directed from 1883 by Joan Martorell, who used a very ornamental Gothic-Mudejar eclecticism, adding from 1889, the more modernist decoration directed by Luis Domenech y Montaner in the auditorium, public church, lobby, staircase, bronze door, mosaics and coffered ceilings, breaking the severity of the original building.

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Cemetery

Luis Domenech y Montaner projected the reform of the cemetery integrating the ruins of the old Gothic chapel in its structure and projecting a new fence full of picturesque elements (pinnacles, crosses kicked, access arch). As a landscape creation, Domench's project aims to emphasize its aspect of ruin, cutting its profiles with the inclusion of the sculpture of the Guardian Angel of Jose LLimona (1894-1985), made of marble and placing it on the walls in the nave of the old church. In addition Domench projects, for the cemetery, the family pantheon of D. Joaquín del Piélago, with the tombstone on the wave twisted by the modernist whip. With a minimal performance he manages to express the sensation of the eternal, the solemn and ambivalent calm of the angel posing like a bird, but also of the outdated through the constant presence of the ruin. Because those ruins had their history: facts that begin with the riot that was organized in the mass of that autumn Sunday already entered the SXVI, when an old woman of the town was forced to abandon the seats reserved to the dukes of the infantado, feudatories of those lands. All together the parishioners swore never to set foot in that church again and decided to build a new one among the living and sheltered from the sea gales, inland, in what today is called Bº la Iglesia. There were lawsuits and more lawsuits and finally it was decided to remove the chair in question but the people had already decided to abandon the old parish and move the cult to the hermitage of S. Juan (which today occupies the Town Hall). It took two or three centuries to build the new church, at the expense of their feast day, and the old church was abandoned.

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Monument to the Marquis of Comillas

The indiano Don Antonio López y López, whose economic and social rise had been unstoppable since his return from Cuba and the establishment of his business in Barcelona, culminating with the granting in 1878 of the title of Marquis of his native town (Comillas), in recognition of Alfonso XII's economic and material support provided in the fight against the Cuban insurrection. From this moment on, the town of Comillas was personalized in the figure of the Marquis by erecting a monument to his memory. It was built in the meadow of Angel Perez, a friend of Lopez, who had given it to the town to house the monument. The town council also raised funds to defray expenses. Cascante's project, which Domenech respects, is erected with an original pedestal in the shape of a ship's prow and the column on which the statue of the marquis stands. It abounds in maritime themes and the bronze statues stand out, with allegories of the Antilles and the Philippines (during the civil war the bronzes of the Indians and coats of arms were melted together with the figure of Lopez or today disappeared).

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Moor Gate

It belongs to the house of Moro, which has a huge effigy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on the facade of its square tower. In 1900, the construction of this car port was agreed upon. This procedure, so simple, so synthetic, based on stone scraps that are destroyed and recomposed as the cubist painters did later with everyday objects and that had always been used in the construction of walls, Gaudi magnifies it and manipulates it to give it a new use, full of fantasy and rigor. In addition to a door for cars and pedestrians, it has a hole in the wall, which is why I would call it "the door of the birds". The undulating surfaces, the rounded corners, the curved volumes of this door will be a point of reference in the linguistic rupture of the architect, who opens here to modernity.

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Santa Lucia viewpoint

We are in front of a magnificent cliffed coast, that reaches 50m of height, only interrupted by the beach of Comillas that can be divided in three zones. The first, from the "Piedra del Pajarito" to the set of rocks of Portillo (on the right). The second is the central area, with a promenade and various facilities. The third is the port area. Comillas has not only this one that extends between the port and the "Picu Miradoriu". There is the beach of the Dead, behind the town cemetery, framed in a tiny bay. The last beach of Comillas, although not in the town center, is the Ría de Oyambre, which has ecosystems of great interest. And is that Comillas, although it had its heyday, first linked to fishing and later to its mines and trade of blende, its real reputation and aristocratic connotations were acquired at the end of the nineteenth century, as a summer resort of King Alfonso XII in 1881 and 1882. It was followed by his Court, noble and wealthy people thanks to a character of modest origin: Antonio López y López, who became the first Marquis of Comillas in 1878. His relations with Barcelona, with the architecture and artists of the time made that today, fantastic buildings are agglutinated and that this villa is one of the centers of the Spanish modernism. The chapel of Santa Lucia, has an eminently popular character with a good image of the patron saint, was made by donation of the fishermen. These came to hear mass, in the early hours, before going out to sea. It is of great simplicity in plan and elevation, with a gabled roof, the main wooden door and preceded by a small porch. It has a small bell that rang when the weather conditions were adverse.

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