Portmeirion

Portmeirion is a town in Wales, whose architecture presents a surprising mix of buildings in a variety of forms and styles. This unusual place is the work of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) - an eccentric architect who at the beginning of the 20th century restored and rebuilt subsequent buildings in opposition to the then dominant brutality and functionalism. The town quickly became a tourist attraction, inspiring artists from various fields - George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells, shot here for the cult series "Doctor Who" and "The Prisoner".

Clough Williams-Ellis, discouraged by what was happening in the architecture of the first decades of the 20th century, decided to build a city from scratch, rejecting the cardinal (trace decorations, lack of intense colors) canon of functionalism. His concept was to fit the buildings into the landscape - architecture was to emphasize and strengthen the natural values of its surroundings. Williams-Ellis drew freely from the achievements of world architecture and reached for a bright palette of colors - currently in Portmeirion there are objects in the Gothic, Baroque, Classicist style, and even kept in the convention of the Norwegian dragestil (the so-called dragon style), they are painted in intense shades yellow, pink, red and green.

In addition to architecture, Portmeirion is also famous for its local porcelain factory (hand-decorated with floral and floral motifs), the botanical garden (exotic species of subtropical plants have become one of the city's symbols) and beautiful beaches. Due to the eclectic architecture and colors, Portmeirion is sometimes called the "Italian town" in Wales.