The Pere Mata Institute is a large psychiatric hospital located in the outskirts of Reus that was instigated by the Reus doctor Emili Briansó. The design commission for the complex was given to Lluís Domènech i Montaner via the lawyer and book lover Pau Font de Rubinat, the first president of the the administrative council, who was a personal friend of and shared the same political beliefs as the architect.

Domènech designed some isolated brick pavilions decorated with white and blue tiles located around the area of the general service pavilion, a building presided by a monumental angel with outstretched wings and crowned by a stylised water tower. In 1901, work began on the first-class pensioners building, one of the milestones of Modernista architecture because of its beauty and the quality of its finishings. Finally, the functional washing rooms were built between 1911 and 1913.