Caernarfon Castle

Edward I began replacing an eleventh-century motte-and-bailey with the present stone fortress in 1283, and built on a grand scale because the castle and its town were to run north Wales. The link to the Roman past was deliberate. The fort of Segontium stands nearby, and the banded walls recall those of Constantinople. Work on castle and town walls together cost between £20,000 and £25,000 by the time it stopped in 1330. From outside it looks complete; inside, the buildings are gone and much was never finished. Madog ap Llywelyn sacked it in 1294 and it was retaken the next year.