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The Colonia Güell (Güell Colony) was a work by
Antoni Gaudí, made by the initiative of the businessman
Eusebi Güell in his properties of Can Soler, in a municipal terminal of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, with the thought to transfer the textile industry there that he had in Sants, and in this way to move his company and employees away from the social conflicts that took place in Barcelona.
He planned to create an industrial colony for his factory, equipped with the most modern technology of the time; with houses for the workers, forming an urban nucleus with a unique personality, social and economic life inside the framework of the company.
The investment of the majority of the industrial colonies of Catalonia, Güell found better social conditions for the workers and applied his condition of patrons of culture, providing the Colony with cultural and religious equipment and incorporates the current Modernism of the time to the new constructions.
The opening of the horizons is significant: the building workers and masters of work left a sample of their talent in many buildings, visible in various cornices and details of the façades of the monuments.
With the Civil War, the factory was collectivization and run by the employees and with its end in 1939, was restored by the Güell family, which in 1945 was bought by the Bertrand and Serra family.
During the following years, the colony continued the industrial production, maintaining its differentiated personality from the Santa Coloma de Cervelló village.
The Güell Colony maintained in the margin of urban growth uncontrolled by the ´60´s and ´70´s preserving itself as a compact property that had industrial production as a priority, until the textile sector crisis, in 1973 the factory ceased activity, producing a great social impact on the Colony.
After some years, the property was sold: the factory in fractions to diverse companies, the houses to the habitants, and the equipment and territories of the environment to public institutions.
In 1990 the Güell Colony joint was declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Good of Cultural Interest). In the last years the rehabilitation commenced in the buildings of the factory, the church (Gaudí´s work), the old consumer´s cooperative and the Joan Güell square, as the best pine trees of the environment and the path of Gaudí.
In 2002 (International Year of Gaudí) a new parking for visitors was constructed and the organisation service for visitors to the conjunction to the Colony was implanted.