The location is the stuff of legend. In 1408, King Martí "the Humane", last of the native Catalan-speaking kings of Catalonia and Aragon, sick and obese, was told to move to the mountains for his health. Bell Esguard, meaning "beautiful outlook", was said to be the spot with the purest air on the great ridge of Collserola above Barcelona, and so chosen for his new fortified manor house. Here, he received the news that his only son, Martí the Younger, had died fighting in Sardinia. Desperate for an heir, he took a beautiful young wife, Margarida de Prades, but to no avail, for he himself died within a year. With that, Catalonia's own royal house ended, and the crown passed to the Castilian Trastámara dynasty. For romantic Catalan nationalists like Gaudí and his wealthy friend Jaume Figueras, it could be said that history had gone downhill ever since.