Category: Tour of historical monuments

In the nineteen century the “corros”, the social centres, were in the main square of the town. They were always placed near the church so when, after the Mass and bells tolled its termination people used to play bowls in the corros.

However to prevent the bowls going out of court, bowling grounds were enclosed by stone walls like the bowling alleys we have today.

Campios is a traditional neighbourhood in the high part of the town whose curving streets lead to the Corro, where people walk, dance on Sundays and used to play bowls.

King Alfonso XIII played bowls during his visit. Each Year on the sixteenth of July, the fiestas for Christ the Protector are held in this square. For many years during those multitudinous  festivals this social centre was embellished with arches, pennants and festive  lights that were switched on with the triumphal arch to welcome the foreigners.

Today it is also a leisure space as well as a meeting point.

Year of construction: desde la segunda mitad S. XVII hasta 1831
Builder: Rubin, an architect from Pesues

This splendid building is located in the square Plaza de la Constitución and was built around the year 1775 on the ruins of the hermitage of Saint John, an ancient pilgrim’s resting place. It consists of a Romanesque arcade, an open ground floor for the townspeople and a first floor with door-like windows that open to an extended balcony supported by a large parapet.

The stonework was done by Simón Fernández de Castro. The five shields of the archbishops who gave Comillas the name of “The Village of the Archbishops” hang on the wall of the main façade.

Juan Antonio González de la Reguera (1720-1805), bishop of Peru.
Rafael de la Vara, bishop in Guatemala
Bernardo Martínez de la Rabia (1759-1826), bishop of Sonora, Mexico
Saturnino Fernández de Castro (1827-1886) bishop of  León and Archsbishop of Burgos

In the boardroom, probably decorated by Martorell, who in turn would have been entrusted by Eusebio Güell, are displayed two copies of the portraits of Antonio López y López and Claudio López-Bru. A portrait of Joaquín del Piélago was painted by Antonio Caba Casmitjna (Barcelona 1838-1907). The reception room was built for the visit of King Alfonso.

On the balcony there are two shields. One with the Royal Crown, the other with a helmet and the Coat of Arms of Comillas, the tower of Seville and the sea, which symbolizes the liberation of that city.

In the square in front of the building it is a collection of traditional houses all attached with their balconies and their heavy walls that, as well as the town hall and the church, make Comillas a most rewarding tourist destination. The village was declared Site of Cultural Interest in 1985.

Architect: Francisco Hernández Rubio
Year of construction: 1899-1902
Period: English Historicism

This prison consisting of two cells and an interior courtyard was built by the townspeople in 1879; Today is the pilgrim’s hostel on their way to Santiago.

The traditional route began in the ancient capital, Santillana del Mar passed through Oreña, Novales, crossing Cigüenza and then Cóbreces. Between Cóbreces and Comillas the pilgrims had to cross Tramalón, whose hermitage still houses the image of Saint James.

Once they had crossed Ruiloba and passed through Concha they were in El Portillo, where there is a watchtower that once was used as a signal post to tell the harpooners by means of the smoke of a fire that there were whales near the coast.

During the seventeenth century,  Comillas was the whaling capital of the Bay of Biscay and thanks to it, the town was freed from the marquisate’s domain. A hospital for pilgrims and passers-by was built a century earlier by a devout woman in the town. In the nineteenth century a legend referring to the pilgrim’s route to Santiago mentioned Comillas. According to the legend, there was a knight who was guarding the relic of Saint James as his disciples carried him from Jerusalem to Santiago. He found no way to cross Comillas’s valley, so riding his horse he got into the water and finally arrived to Galicia. When he got out of the water, he saw that he and his horse body were covered with shells. Since then the shell has become the apostle’s shield, and thus the pilgrims began to wear them.

This mythical legend tells us that the coast route was regularly used at that time.

During the first decades of the twentieth century the king Alfonso XIII pledged himself and his kingdom more devotedly to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

This activity initiated a rebirth of Catholicism and led to a renewed interest in the Cerro de los Ángeles, a monument constructed in Madrid. As a result of this, many statues of the Sacred Heart were erected throughout the country. One of those is in Comillas. It is a dignified statue, which the II Marquis of Comillas entrusted to a Catalan artist.

This sculpture is located in a neighbourhood known as “La Peña” just behind the municipal building.

This is a spectacular steep-cliff coast that reaches up to 50 metres high, and which is interrupted by the beach of Comillas. This beach can be divided into three different areas.

The first is from the Pajarito stone to the rocks in Portillo.

There is a central area with a seafront and several facilities.

And there is a port. Although Comillas has two other beaches, a small bay just behind the cemetery, called the Dead Beach, and another in La Rabia Lagoon, remarkable for its interesting ecosystems.

The Hermitage of Santa Lucia is a popular church that houses an image of its patron Saint and was funded by local fishermen. They used to go to mass early in the morning every day before setting sail. It consists of a simple floor plan, a gable roof and a wooden main door covered by a small porch. It is remembered for the small bell that used to be tolled in case of bad weather conditions.

The port is enclosed by a high dyke protected from the Northwest, Northeast and fierce North winds. The 9 metres access has a wooden sluice gate the fishermen close when the weather conditions and the undertow may damage their vessels.

The port’s construction cost the townspeople 30,700 ducados equivalent to 370 euros. It was begun in 1603 and finished in 1716, so for many years the fishing activity took place in the beach. The port was first defended by three watchtowers and a fort that had four pieces of artillery. Nevertheless, from its construction it was used more for fishing  rather than for protection. Fishermen put out in small boats with harpoons, and whaling was the harbour’s main activity, so much that it was the last whaling port in the eighteen century. The whale stone, as it is known, was the place where fishermen butchered their catch. In the winter they fished for red-breams, conger-eels, in the summer it was time for sardines and tunas.

A long while ago this harbour exported blended and calamine from local mines and imported coal and cement.

It had its own fishermen’s association known as the Christ the Protector Association, established in the beginning of the fifteen century. Over the years the number of fishermen has decreased considerably and consequently the importance of this confederation.

The harbour has also an auction house, this is a popular construction situated on the west side of the port that was built in 1942 on the ancient warehouse of the mines’ company, Real CIA Asturiana de Minas. It consists of three attached buildings, a central one with two floors and the two other with one.

On a corner of the port is a high relief bronze plaque in memory of Jesus Cancio (1885-1961), the so-called Poet of the Sea”.

It was Antonio Lopez’ s house.

He decided to build it for his mother in the middle of the nineteen century. Originally it was a detached house. It consists of a hipped roof and four façades, one  overlooking the  square Plaza de los Tres Caños, nowadays named Plaza Joaquín del Piélago.

One of the characteristics of the main façade is its undecorated stonework and it also differs from the rest of the house as it has four pointed pre-neo-Gothic windows on the ground floor.

The other façades bear balconies and  the ground floor windows are framed by solid stones and grilles reminiscent of more popular constructions. It is also notable for the fence that surrounds the house  which dates from 1850.

In 1881  King Alfonso XII came to spend the summer in Comillas and, in order to fit out the building for Royalty, the Marquis brought many different artists and architechs from Catalonia.

Gaudí designed the chimney and refurbished the living-room but other Catalan artists decorated the rest of the house.