Portmeirion Bell Tower

Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe (Standard British accent)

Later this year there will be a re-make of The Prisoner. This was a cult 1960s TV series about a man who was trapped in “The Village.” In every episode he tried to escape, but failed. It starred Patrick McGoohan, who died in January. Only 17 episodes of The Prisoner were made, but it is still very popular.

ITALIAN STYLE

The re-make of The Prisoner is being filmed in Africa, but the original series was shot in Portmeirion, a bizarre Italianate village in North Wales. Visitors enter Portmeirion through a series of arches, and then find themselves in the open space of the magnificent central piazza with its gothic pavilion, surrounded by colourful cottages and exotic buildings. Portmeirion founder and architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis had a great love for Portofino and Italy in general, but visitors will find many different architectural styles in the village: there’s the Pantheon, with its domed roof, the neo-classical Georgian Cliff House, the Jacobean Town Hall and the Victorian Castell Deudraeth.

OPTICAL ILLUSION

Portmeirion is unique: the village appears larger than it really is and the buildings seem taller. Slowly visitors may notice that the base of the Bell Tower is twice as wide as its top, fake windows are painted on walls, the boat in the harbour is actually a stone building, the lighthouse has no light, and the village has a Town Hall, but no residents, only guests.
Today the village is a tourist resort which offers splendid hotel rooms and self-catering cottages. Portmeirion is also famous for its ceramics.

MYSTERIOUS

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis loved to create illusions and riddles: visitors can search out the mermaids, unicorns and grotesque gargoyles that hide in the shadows. Find the missing right arm of the Buddha that sits in the shadows of the Pantheon Dome and wonder at the palm trees and exotic plants of the gardens.