Cardiff - Caerdydd

‘Europe’s newest capital city’ Cardiff is a vibrant and burgeoning city, riding high on the crest of multi billion pound redevelopment wave which has positively reinvigorated the city making it an exciting place to visit.

In the last 20 years Cardiff has been transformed from a deteriorating former coal port into an exciting and upbeat cultured capital city that Wales can be proud of. Cardiff boasts stunning architecture from the medieval gothic towers of St John’s Church and Cardiff Castle, the elegant Victorian buildings of Cathays Park and the stylish waterside development of Cardiff Bay.

As a cultural centre Cardiff has the impressive National Museum and Gallery of Wales, housing the largest collection of impressionist paintings outside Paris, the Museum of Welsh Life, over 50 hectares of parkland, and a healthy music scene. But what most Welsh people are proud of in Cardiff is the £110 million Millennium Stadium, home to the Welsh national game of Rugby and where the FA Cup final (Britain’s biggest soccer event) is held.

The Romans first settled the area around the river Taff, forming the Taff Fort, called Caer Taff. Centuries later Cardiff was the sight of a Norman settlement where in 1093 the Norman Earl of Gloucester built the castle keep that still stands in the grounds of Cardiff Castle.

In 1801 Cardiff was home to just about 1,000 people but by the end of the 19^th Century it was the hub of the biggest coal industry in the world. Cardiff’s industrial history is dominated by the Bute family, an aristocratic family from Scotland who developed the coal and iron industries around Merthyr Tydfil and facilitated the canal and rail networks for its export from Cardiff. At its peak in 1913 Cardiff exported 13 million tons of coal and was the world’s main coal port making the Marquis of Bute one of the richest men in the world.

However, when the coal industry declined in the post war period, so did Cardiff. In 1955 Cardiff was proclaimed the capital of Wales and developed as a centre for commerce and administration. Following the recent establishment of the Welsh Assembly and the huge redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay area as a centre for leisure and commerce, Cardiff is at the head of a new resurgent Wales.