Built in the 1910s as the palatial estate of Count Eusebi Güell -- one of Gaudí's most important patrons -- this mansion was transformed into a royal palace by architect Eusebi Bona i Puig and completed in 1929. King Alfonso XIII, grandfather of Spanish king Juan Carlos I, visited the palace in the mid-1920s before its completion. In 1931, during the Second Spanish Republic, the palace became the property of the municipal government, and it was converted to a decorative arts museum in 1932. In 1936 the rambling, elegant country-manor-house palace was used as the official residence of Manuel Azaña, last president of the Spanish Republic.

Today the palace houses both the Museu de les Arts Decoratives and the Museu de la Ceràmica. The collection of decorative arts includes palace furniture and antiques from the 15th through 20th centuries, while the ceramics display covers Spanish ceramic art from the 12th century to the present, as well as ceramics by contemporary artists. The influence of Moorish design techniques in Spanish ceramics and decorative arts is carefully documented in a separate display. A good 30-minute forced march down from the Monestir de Pedralbes, the palace is good place to visit in combination with the Càtedra Gaudí study center. The best way to walk there from Sarrià's Plaça de Sant Vicens is to cut across Major de Sarrià and Oriol Mestres to Fontcoberta, take a left and then a right on Vives i Tutó, and walk to the corner of Conde del Trinquet, where you can then go through the consecutive gardens of the Casal de Sarrià and the Jardins de la Vil.la Amèlia, exiting into Passeig de Claudi Güell and cutting down to the end of Passeig Manuel Girona just across from the Càtedra Gaudí. After seeing Càtedra Gaudí, cut around the right side and walk along Carrer de Fernando Primo de Rivera, which runs along the garden walls of the palace, down to the main entrance on the Diagonal.