Enric Sagnier's links with the Tibidabo mountain were not limited to the construction of the temple that crowns the summit, but also led him to take part in the urban development operation promoted by the pharmaceutical industrialist Salvador Andreu on the slope overlooking the city. This prominent man from Barcelona headed the Sociedad Anónima El Tibidabo, which acquired the rural estate known as Frare Blanc, opened up a series of streets around Avinguda del Tibidabo and proceeded to develop it with high-class villas. Sagnier worked actively on this garden city, as did other modernist architects such as Puig i Cadafalch, Adolf Ruiz and Joan Rubió i Bellver.
This complex, consisting of two similar villas situated on a large plot and attributed to Sagnier, consists of two buildings reminiscent of classicism, in a line that the architect developed above all from the second decade of the 20th century onwards, although we know that these were already finished in 1906 because the owners stated this in two requests presented to the Town Hall offices. The families, who were related to each other, belonged to the highest strata of Barcelona society at the time: the Serts were powerful textile industrialists (the famous painter Josep M. Sert came from their ranks), while Eusebi López Díaz-Quijano was the nephew of the Marquis of Comillas.
The buildings were inspired by French architecture, in this case in a version close to the classicism of the lights. The practically standardised formal elements of the façades are articulated to give rise to volumes which, read in terms of urban image, aspire to transmit values of nobility and tradition, while the interiors are more adapted to domestic life and social relations.
