The spectacular landscapes of Gwynedd
- the historic counties of Anglesey Caernarfon & Merioneth
- are the setting for many of Wales greatest buildings. Beaumaris Caernarfon Conwy & Harlech castles are unsurpassed as works of medieval military architecture. Penrhyn is the epitome of romantic castle-making from the Regency age while the bridges & viaducts constructed for Thomas Telfords new high road & Robert Stephensons main-line railway are enduring wonders of nineteenth-century civil engineering. The Picturesque tradition makes a late & unexpected flowering at Portmeirion the bewitching Italianate seaside village founded between the wars by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis. Prehistoric & Early Christian sites of immense evocative power are scattered through the mountainous interior intermixed with a unique inheritance of early industrial monuments including vast slate quarries & some celebrated narrow-gauge railways. The diverse towns include the planned Georgian settlement at Tremadoc & the ambitious seaside resort of Llandudno. Atmospheric medieval churches prolific Nonconformist chapels & houses in distinctive vernacular traditions are plentiful throughout. Altogether no area of Wales is more rewarding to the architectural traveler.