Portmeirion is an Italianate resort village on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales, used as a location for many films and television shows, notably The Prisoner. Despite repeated claims that it was based on the real town of Portofino, Italy, Portmeirion's designer denied this, stating only that he wanted to pay tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean.
The village was designed and constructed over the period from 1925 to 1975 by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978). He incorporated fragments of many demolished buildings in the village, including works by a number of other distinguished architects. Portmeirion's architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late twentieth century.
The grounds contain an important collection of rhododendrons and other exotic plants in a wild-garden setting which was begun before Clough Williams-Ellis' time and has continued to be developed since his death.
Portmeirion is now owned by a charitable trust, and run as a hotel, which uses the majority of the buildings as hotel rooms or self-catering cottages, together with various shops, a cafe, tea-room and restaurant. Day visits can be made on payment of an admission charge. Portmeirion is located two mile east of Porthmadog at the entrance to the Lleyn Peninsula, and one mile from the Minffordd station serving both the Ffestiniog Railway (narrow gauge steam) and Arriva Trains Wales.
Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying in the Fountain 2 (Upper Fountain) suite at Portmeirion.
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