The work was commissioned by Barcelona industrialist Eusebi Güell, who was a wealthy and well-educated man associated with the cultural ranaissance (renaixença) that Catalonia was enjoying at the time. Güell would become Gaudi's best customer for more than thirty years, granting the architect full creative freedom. This book familiarizes the reader with the history of the palace and its main characters, essentual for undestanding the building's relationship with the social and cultural context in which it was designed and built.