The lovely town of Comillas was our last day out of the trip before driving to Bilbao for the ferry home. We were here briefly earlier in the year in torrential rain so it was a relief this time that the weather was perfect!
The town is full of so many impressive building due to Spanish royalty spending time here in the 1800's. It has a small port and also a lovely beach.
El Capricho de Gaudi was quite a surprise. A summer house designed by Gaudi in his early years for wealthy Maximo Diaz de Quijano, an 'Indiano' - someone who left Spain and made his money in the Americas (slave trade). Many features dedicated to nature and also music - Maximo was a Pianist. The house took two years to build and then Maximo spent 7 days living there before he died!
Clever and very unique but very 'Gaudy' from the outside, however, inside was lovely with some really clever design features. Weighted sash windows plus, when two adjacent windows are moved, the 'tuned' weights touch sounding like church bells in the distance - genius!
The house was designed like a sunflower, with each room facing the sun at the time of day that Maximo would be using it. Bedroom facing east for instance.
As if cradled by the house, a conservatory is built facing south, with an inner corridor around the inside to spread warmth and light to other parts of the house. There was even channels under the warmed floor to spread warm air to other areas.
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A coal fire made in Scotland |