Cristóbal Cascante i Colom

Cristóbal Cascante Colom (November 1851 – July 12, 1889) was a Catalan Modernista architect, best known for his close collaboration with Antoni Gaudí and Joan Martorell on a concentration of late 19th-century architecture in Comillas, Cantabria. He graduated in the same class as Gaudí from the Barcelona School of Architecture in 1878, and the two maintained a close friendship until Cascante's death at the age of 37.

Early life and education

Cascante was born in Esparreguera in November 1851, the son of Cristóbal Cascante Llopart (1810–1891), a textile manufacturer from Monistrol de Montserrat, and María Colom Castells (1809–1879). The family had established a cotton factory in Esparreguera, which burned down in the mid-19th century, forcing the father to work as a manager at the Molí Vell factory owned by the Mercader family in Martorell.

Between 1871 and 1873, Cascante enrolled at the Universitat Literària de Barcelona before entering the Barcelona School of Architecture, from which he graduated on March 15, 1878. His teachers included leading architects of the Renaixença movement, such as Elies Rogent, August Font i Carreras, and Francisco de Paula del Villar. Chapel-Pantheon of Sobrellano (1881): site direction of the adjacent funerary chapel, also designed by Martorell. El Capricho (1883–1885): Gaudí, working from Barcelona, entrusted Cascante with the on-site direction of this pavilion commissioned by Máximo Díaz de Quijano. Comillas Hospital (Santo Hospital) (1885–1888): designed and built by Cascante on commission from Claudio López Bru, 2nd Marquess of Comillas.