Barbara Oggero
The castle of lost causes
Built on top of 60 m rocks, the dark Harlech Castle was built between 1283 and 1290, designed by Giacomo Del Balzo and ordered by Edward I of England. It is the southernmost of the four forts that are part of the so-called "Ring of Iron" (the others are the Beaumaris Castle, Caernarfon Castle and Conwy Castle), declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1986. In a landscape of rare beauty and intensity, with the mountains of Snowdonia behind and the sea not far, it has been dubbed the castle of lost causes, because it was conquered several times throughout its history. On March 15, 1647 it was the
Last of the Welsh castles to surrender to Cromwell's army, and with its fall, the Civil War ended.
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