Palacio de Sobrellano, Comillas

The palace of Sobrellano, also known as the palace of the Marquis of Comillas, located in the town of Comillas was the work of the Catalan architect Joan Martorell who built it on behalf of the first Marquis of Comillas, Antonio López y López, finishing the works in 1888. This grandiose neo-Gothic style building has a rectangular floor plan and has inside furniture by Antoni Gaudí and paintings by Eduardo Llorens. Outside there are sculptures by Joan Roig.

Next to the palace there is a beautiful chapel-pantheon of English and Central European Gothic style with furniture by Gaudí and modernist sculptures by Joan Roig, Josep Llimona, Venancio Vallmitjana and Agapito Vallmitjana.

It was the first building in Spain to use electric light, as the first Marquis had it installed for one of Alfonso XII's visits, although he finally stayed at Casa Ocejo as the installation was not finished in time.

Works such as this palace, Gaudí's Capricho, the Comillas Kiosk, the Pontifical University or the cemetery with its magnificent sculpture of The Exterminating Angel by Josep Llimona on the ruins of the old Gothic monastery meant that important Catalan modernist architects and artists of the time left their mark on this town.

Currently the palace is owned by the Government of Cantabria and is a museum, although it is also used temporarily as a venue for the courses of the Comillas Foundation until the rehabilitation of the major seminary of the building of the former Pontifical University is finished.