Comillas

The landscape around Comillas is riddled with caves and sinkholes, and people have been living here since prehistoric times. The Cueva de La Meaza at Ruiseñada contains a large entrance chamber with evidence of Magdalenian, Azilian, and Bronze Age occupation, along with abstract cave paintings, sinuous dotted lines in red and a hand stencil, considered almost certainly Palaeolithic. The Cuevas de Portillo, on the boundary with Ruiloba, are deeper, with many galleries, and have yielded Neolithic shell middens pointing to a community that specialised in shellfish gathering while also hunting, choosing settlements with both mountain and sea close at hand.

The Romans were here too. The Mina Numa at La Molina (Ruiseñada) was worked from antiquity, and excavations have turned up Roman tools, coins, and an altar dedicated to Jupiter, as well as arrowheads. A hillfort, the Castro de la Peña del Castillo, stands about three kilometres outside the town centre; its walls survive, mixed in with the remains of a later medieval castle.

Roman-period column fragments, artificial grottos, and sarcophagi have also been found among the gardens of the Palacio de Sobrellano. Despite this Roman presence, Comillas was never much more than a transit point under Roman rule, and it only consolidates as a recognisable town in the tenth and eleventh centuries, with the earliest dwellings appearing in what is now the Velecio quarter. The oldest surviving documents date from around 1088, when its people held behetría status, free men with the right to choose their own lord, provided he came from a specified lineage connected to the House of La Vega.

In 1444, Íñigo López de Mendoza received the title of Marquis of Santillana from King Juan II of Castile, and three years later was granted jurisdiction over Comillas and surrounding settlements. Garcilaso I de la Vega built a tower, still known locally as El Torreón, near the harbour, to contest the maritime dominance of San Vicente de la Barquera along that stretch of coast. After the Pleito de los Valles, the town passed into the royal province of Nueve Valles, having been one of the four municipalities that made up the Alfoz de Lloredo and fought the Marquises of Santillana to preserve that status.

Comillas holds an unusual concentration of Modernista work, brought together in the late nineteenth century under the patronage of the Marquis of Comillas. The most photographed building is El Capricho, designed by Antoni Gaudí and covered in sunflower-tile mosaics. A statue of Gaudí stands beside it.

The Palacio de Sobrellano, the marquis's palace, sits in a green field with mature trees; next to it is the chapel-pantheon where the marquis and his family are buried. Also on the grounds are Roman fragments, column sections, artificial grottos, and sarcophagi, found among the gardens. The cemetery facade has been a protected monument since 1983.

When it was reformed from 1881, Lluís Domènech i Montaner incorporated the ruins of a late-medieval Gothic parish church into the design, framing them with crosses and pinnacles. On one of the surviving ruined walls stands the Ángel Exterminador, a marble Modernista sculpture by Josep Llimona, completed in 1895 and considered the symbol of Comillas. Domènech i Montaner also designed the Fuente de los Tres Caños, a monumental fountain built to mark the arrival of piped water, making Comillas one of the first towns in Spain to have water in its homes, and the Parque Güell y Martos, a public park created in 1890 after the marquis's death, containing his statue and several crosses.

Bronze figures that originally sat on thrones around the statue were removed during the Civil War by Nationalist troops to be melted down for ammunition. The Antigua Universidad Pontificia, formerly a seminary, is another landmark, notable for its entrance portico and extensive gardens. The Baroque Iglesia de San Cristóbal was built between 1640 and the end of the seventeenth century; it has a tower finished with a French-style pinnacle, Gothic-tradition vaulting, a notable organ, and the Santo Cristo del Amparo.

The tower was destroyed by a Republican bomb during the Civil War and subsequently rebuilt taller than before. The whole historic centre has been protected as a conjunto histórico since 1985. Other notable features include the Torre de la Vega (formerly belonging to Garcilaso I de la Vega), the Centro Cultural El Espolón (a neoclassical building from 1794), the Palacio de la Coteruca (a battlemented aristocratic residence burned in the Civil War and since restored), and the harbour, recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest registered whaling port.

The harbour also has a statue dedicated to Jesús Cancio, the poet of Comillas and the sea.

Comillas looks out over a coast of cliffs broken by its beach and promenade, best seen from the Mirador de Santa Lucía. Its medieval core was transformed in the late nineteenth century by emigrants returning from the Americas, above all Antonio López y López, Marquis of Comillas, leaving an unusual concentration of Modernista buildings. The historic centre has been protected since 1985.

The best known is El Capricho, Antoni Gaudí's summer house covered in sunflower tiles. Nearby, the Palacio de Sobrellano and its chapel-pantheon, where the marquis and his family are buried, draw on English Gothic. Lluís Domènech i Montaner reworked the cemetery around the ruins of a Gothic church, and on one surviving wall stands Josep Llimona's marble Ángel Exterminador of 1895, regarded as the symbol of Comillas. Down at the harbour, a statue honours Jesús Cancio, the poet of Comillas and the sea.

Comillas joined Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España in 2024. The label is awarded by a private association, not the state: a village applies and is audited against around 40 criteria, from how its historic buildings are conserved to the upkeep of its streets, and members are reviewed and can lose it. Comillas is one of 7 members in Cantabria, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Cantabria.

Comillas is 52 km west of Santander airport via the A-67, A-8, and Ca-135. Cantabria buses (transportedecantabria.es) run four times daily from Santander, taking 70 minutes via Santillana del Mar, and continue to San Vicente de la Barquera; the main stop is at Marqués de Comillas 12, 100 m west of the town hall and tourist office. The local taxi is Taxi Diaz (+34 613 004508).

For food shopping: Lupa supermarket on Cervantes is open Monday–Saturday 09:00–21:00; Ultramarinos Tinita on Plaza de la Constitución is open Monday–Saturday 09:00–14:30 and 17:00–20:30, Sunday 09:30–14:30; Covirán on Las Infantas is open Monday–Friday 09:00–13:30 and 17:00–21:00, Saturday 09:00–14:00. Around a dozen places in the town centre serve traditional food; Restaurante Gurea on Ignacio Fernández de Castro (open Sunday and Monday 13:30–16:00, Friday and Saturday 13:30–16:00 and 20:30–22:30) is considered the best. About a dozen bars are also in the centre.

The main local drink is cider rather than wine. As of May 2026, Comillas and its approach roads have 5G coverage from all Spanish carriers.