Comillas " the village of the archbishops ", the village takes this name from having five native sons having become illustrious Catholic Bishops who subsequently played an important part in Spanish religious history.

Attractive, noble and aristocrat, Comillas at the end of the 19 th century was chosen by the king of Spain Alfonso XII to house his royal court for the entire summer period. Coincidently this period fell at the same time as the first appearance of Catalan modernism outside of Cataluña.

The impressive artistic and architectural legacy impresses the thousands of visitors who come every year to soak up the sights and sounds of this attractive seaside village.

This thanks to a local patron, Antonio Lopez Lopez, who gained his wealth and prestige from the South American conquests, upon his return received the appointment of the "Marques of Comillas" from Alfonso XII and decided to utilize his fortune to convert his native village into a treasure trove of artistic and monumental delights.

However the origins of Comillas are more humble. The fishing village of San Vicente de la Barquera was devastated by a fire that burnt down the majority of the ancient village in the 15 th century. After which a group of fisherman who had lost everything decided to start afresh further along the coast at a new site to continue their fishing lifestyle.

Thus Comillas came into being. The name derives its origin from Comillas being founded five miles (Cinco millas in Spanish) from Santillana del Mar. The name having been shortened over the centuries to the Comillas of today or so the legend goes. Until the 19 th century Comillas was little more then a sleepy fishing village but in this century appeared on the horizon the figure of the "Marques de Comillas" who had just finished accumulating his fortune in Cuba . When he returned the Marques contracted his favourite artists and architects who were leaders in the modernism style which was emerging in Cataluña at this time and began work on the construction of numerous modernism monuments and buildings which mark the landscape so attractively today. A good example of the great friendship shared by the Marques and the monarch Alfonso XII was that in the year 1881 Comillas hosted the royal cabinet of ministers, a great honour indeed. Out of this gathering came a royal approval for the installation of electricity for the village, the first place in Spain to have this type of lighting.