Antonio López y López

Antonio López y López
Born	12 April 1817 Comillas
Died	16 January 1883 Barcelona
Nationality	Spanish
Title	Marques de Comillas
Spouse(s)	Lluïsa Bru Lassús
Children	Four

Antonio López y López, primer Marques de Comillas (1817 in Comillas – 1883 in Barcelona), was a Spanish businessman and shipping magnate. He was the founder of a number of important Spanish companies.

After his death his son Claudio López Bru took over the responsibility of running the companies his father had founded.

Antonio López emigrated to colonial Cuba in 1831 while still a teenager and lived in Santiago de Cuba. He took an interest in shipping and in 1850 he founded the "Compañia de Vapores Correos A. López" which began operations with a 400-ton hybrid sailing ship-sidewheel steamer. This company would eventually become the Compañía Transatlántica Española ocean line in 1881.

In 1876 he became the co-founder and first president of the Banco Hispano Colonial, established in Barcelona. He also led the Banco de Crédito Mercantil. Around that time Antonio López transferred his residence to Barcelona and married Catalan lady, Lluïsa Bru Lassús, with whom he had four children. Claudio Lopez Bru was his fourth son. During this decade he moved to Spain the head offices of some of his companies as well. Eventually his children became part of the high society in Barcelona and Antonio López became the father in law of Eusebi Güell after his daughter Isabel López Bru married him.

At the prompting of Jesuit Tomás Gómez Carral Antonio López accepted to finance the construction of the Comillas Pontifical University, but he died in 1883 in Barcelona in the very year of the groundbreaking ceremony.

Antonio López was the founder of the following companies: Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas, Ferrocarriles del Norte, and Compañía Transatlántica Española, among others.

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