Comillas

Comillas is one of those northern Spanish towns that genuinely stops you in your tracks. A compact fishing village on the Cantabrian coast, it somehow ended up as a showcase for Catalan Modernisme — with buildings by Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Joan Martorell sitting side by side with cobbled medieval streets and a working harbour. The closest airport is Santander, roughly 53 kilometres away and about 42 minutes by car or taxi. Buses run directly from Santander's bus station into the village. Once you're here, leave the car at one of the car parks on the outskirts: the full monumental route is only about three kilometres on foot.

What to See in Comillas

El Capricho de Gaudí

El Capricho de Gaudí is the obvious starting point — and rightly so. Built between 1883 and 1885, this is one of very few works the Catalan architect completed outside Catalonia. The building blends Oriental and natural references, with vivid ceramic tilework and a mushroom-shaped tower that looks unlike anything else on the Cantabrian coast.

Palacio de Sobrellano

Right next door, the Palacio de Sobrellano is a Neo-Gothic palace that served as the summer residence of the Marquis of Comillas. The period-furnished rooms give a strong sense of nineteenth-century aristocratic life, and the gardens are worth a quiet wander. It also holds the distinction of being the first building in Spain to use electric lighting.

Sobrellano Chapel Pantheon

Conceived on the scale of a small cathedral, this Neo-Gothic chapel — with Modernist touches by Joan Martorell — houses the tombs of the Marquises of Comillas. The stonework and stained glass are remarkably detailed for a private funerary chapel, and it sits in a setting that feels genuinely theatrical in the best sense.

Former Pontifical University

This sweeping Neo-Gothic and Mudéjar complex was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and is now home to an international centre for Spanish language studies. The Former Pontifical University is one of the finest examples of Modernisme outside Barcelona — the kind of building that rewards a slow walk around its perimeter before you head inside.

Fountain of the Three Spouts

Also by Domènech i Montaner, this modernist fountain in the town centre is easy to walk past without realising what you're looking at. Stop and take in the intricate sculptures and mosaic work. On Friday mornings, the surrounding squares fill with local producers selling cheeses, sobaos, fruit and vegetables — a genuinely good local market.

Birds' Door

A distinctive gateway attributed to Gaudí, the Birds' Door is a small but telling detail that shows how thoroughly the Catalan architect's influence ran through this town. It's the sort of thing you'd miss on a rushed visit — exactly why a guided route through Comillas pays off.

Historic Centre of Comillas

The medieval old town is a designated Historic and Artistic Site, and the historic centre of Comillas earns that status. Cobbled streets, stone façades and quiet squares give the village its backbone. Comillas is one of Spain's officially recognised most beautiful villages — a list that sets a fairly high bar.

Cuevas de La Meaza

A short distance from the village centre, these caves contain Palaeolithic rock paintings around 14,000 years old, discovered in 1907. They're a reminder that this stretch of the Cantabrian coast has been drawing people in for rather longer than the Marquis of Comillas ever managed.

Audio Guide of Comillas with Guipock

The Guipock audio guide Comillas is designed for the way most people actually visit a place like this — on foot, at their own pace, without a tour group. You download everything before you leave, and the app works entirely offline once you're there. No signal, no problem: the offline download means your guide is ready whether you have mobile data or not.

Navigation works through a GPS-guided map that tracks your position as you move through the town. When you arrive at a point of interest, Guipock lets you know — you open the audio guide and listen when you're ready. There's no pressure to keep up with anyone else's pace.

The audio itself is produced using high-quality generated audio across a range of languages and regional accents — including en-GB, en-US and en-AU, as well as Spanish variants, French, German and others. So if you're travelling with friends or family from different countries, everyone can follow along in their own language.

That brings us to the family code feature. One payment covers your whole group: each person uses their own phone, in their own language, at their own pace. No sharing a single device or squinting over someone's shoulder. And if you're travelling with children, the children's mode offers the same route with shorter, age-appropriate commentary — same monuments, same stops, language pitched to hold a younger audience's attention.

For a town like Comillas — compact but genuinely dense with things worth understanding — having the app audio guide Comillas on your phone means you won't spend the walk staring at a paper map or waiting for a tour to start. You go when you're ready, at the pace that suits you.

How to Make the Most of Your Visit to Comillas

Comillas sits on the Cantabrian coast in the region of Cantabria, in northern Spain. The nearest airport is Santander — about 53 kilometres away. The drive or taxi journey takes roughly 42 minutes. Alternatively, there are direct bus services from Santander's bus station to the village, which is a straightforward option if you'd rather not hire a car.

Once you're in Comillas, everything is walkable. The full monumental route — taking in all the key buildings — covers around three kilometres. Park on the edge of the village and do the loop on foot. It's the only sensible way to see it properly.

The town's coastline adds a natural dimension that's worth factoring in. The Ría de la Rabia and the clifftops above the Cantabrian Sea make for good walking, and Comillas Beach sits in an attractive stretch of coast. If the weather is on your side — northern Spain can be unpredictable — the combination of monuments and coastline makes for a genuinely full day.

On the food front, the local dish to look for is sorropotún, a robust fish stew with clear marinero roots. Squid and octopus — rabas — are on most menus, as is cocido montañés, a hearty bean and pork stew that makes good sense on a cooler day. For something sweet, sobaos pasiegos and quesada pasiega are the regional staples, both widely available in local shops and at the Friday morning market.

That market — held in the Plaza de la Fuente de los Tres Caños, Plaza del Corro and Plaza de la Constitución — is worth timing your visit around if you can. Local producers bring cheese, baked goods, fruit and seasonal produce. It runs on Friday mornings and gives the town centre a different, more local feel than the rest of the week.

In terms of how long to allow: a focused day covers the monuments and the coast comfortably. If you want to eat well, browse the market and take the walk at a proper pace rather than a march, an overnight stay makes the most of what Comillas has to offer.