Lluís Domènech i Montaner was born in Barcelona on December 21, 1850. Son of Pere Domènech i Saló, a publisher and prestigious bookbinder, and Maria Montaner Vila, from a wealthy family of Canet de Mar.

As soon as the school of architecture of Barcelona opened he entered as a professor along with José Vilaseca Casanovas and worked as director of the educational centre until 1920. This position enabled him to establish the guidelines of Catalan modernism and to be the master of great architects of that time such as Antoni Gaudí.

Also in 1875, he married María Roura Carnestoltes, daughter of a wealthy family of navigators from Canet de Mar, with whom he had eight children. The family lived in Barcelona but continued to vacation at Canet de Mart, their hometown.

El mateix 1875 es casa amb Maria Roura Carnestoltes, filla d’una nissaga de navegants adinerats de Canet de Mar, amb qui té vuit fills. La família viu a Barcelona, però segueix estiuejant a Canet de Mar, el seu poble natal.

In this building, which served as a café and restaurant for the Universal Exhibition, we can clearly see one of the architect's greatest inspirations throughout his professional career: medieval art. This building is a reinterpretation of a medieval castle, in which the axis of symmetry is voluntarily broken, a tendency we will find in other buildings throughout Modernisme.

At the end of the 19th century, Reus lacked a therapeutic space for the mentally ill, as the existing one was totally outdated. For this reason, a few prominent people in the city got Domènech i Montaner to design the project for the psychiatric hospital. Built on the outskirts of the city so that patients could enjoy the fresh air, it was planned as a series of independent pavilions. It is considered the forerunner of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona.
The Pavelló dels Distingits (Pavilion of the Distinguished) stands out for its monumentality and was intended to house patients from the city's wealthy bourgeois families.

Now known as Hotel Espanya, it was remodelled by Domènech i Montaner, together with other artists of his time. It is especially in the main dining room where we find this joint work between artists, as we have works by the sculptor Eusebi Arnau and the painter Ramon Casas, author of the magnificent sgraffito on the wall depicting a seabed with mermaids.

This house completes the famous island of discord, together with Casa Batlló by Gaudí and Casa Amatller by Puig i Cadafalch. On the outside, the architect was clearly inspired by Gothic architecture.
On the ground floor, Domènech i Montaner designed a space for a shop, which unfortunately has not survived. Its decorations included sculptures representing classical muses, which were destroyed right in front of the house.

In 1905 the construction of the auditorium commissioned by the Orfeó Català began and was considered the greatest expression of Catalan modernism. The Palau de la Música, together with the Hospital Sant Pau, were awarded the Annual Concert of Artistic Buildings of the City Council of Barcelona in 1905 and 1913 respectively, and in 1997 the UNESCO catalogued them as a World Heritage Site.

In the last years of his life Domènech i Montaner is distanced from the great architectural projects to dedicate himself to archaeological and historical investigation. The manuscripts on the history of Catalonia and Catalan heraldry, written in the Masía Rocosa of Canet de Mar, where he spends most of the end of his life, are noteworthy as he is affected by a stomach cancer that makes him delegate all his professional activity to his son Pere Domènech Roura. He died in Barcelona at the age of 73 and was buried in the cemetery of Sant Gervasi in Barcelona although his last wish was to be buried the family pantheon in Canet de Mar.