Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cardiff Highlights
Marvelling at the over-the-top Victorian interiors of
Cardiff Castle
(
Click here
), the city's ancient citadel
Getting swept away by the exhilaration of a fired-up rugby test at
Millennium Stadium
(
Click here
)
Taking an engrossing journey via the big bang, natural history and fine art at the
National Museum Cardiff
(
Click here
)
Traipsing around the transplanted historical buildings and beautiful gardens of
St Fagans National History
Museum
(
Click here
)
Joining the night-time revellers hopping between central-city bars such as
Clwb Ifor Bach
(
Click here
) as the
streets thrum with live music
Admiring the architectural showpieces that make up the glitzy entertainment precinct at
Cardiff Bay
(
Click
here
)
Crossing the moat at
Caerphilly Castle
(
Click here
) and wandering into a fairy tale
History
In AD 75 the Romans built a fort where Cardiff Castle now stands. The name Cardiff prob-
ably derives from the Welsh Caer Tâf (Fort on the River Taff) or Caer Didi (Didius' Fort),
referring to Roman general Aulus Didius. After the Romans left Britain the site remained
unoccupied until the Norman Conquest. In 1093 a Norman knight named Robert
Fitzhamon (conqueror of Glamorgan and later earl of Gloucester) built himself a castle
within the Roman walls and a small town grew up around it. Both were damaged in a
Welsh revolt in 1183 and the town was sacked in 1404 by Owain Glyndŵr during his ill-
fated rebellion against English domination.
The first of the Tudor Acts of Union in 1536 put the English stamp on Cardiff and
brought some stability. But despite its importance as a port, market town and bishopric,
only 1000 people were living here in 1801.
The city owes its present stature to iron and coal mining in the valleys to the north. Coal
was first exported from Cardiff on a small scale as early as 1600. In 1794 the Bute family -
which owned much of the land from which Welsh coal was mined - built the Glamorgan-
shire Canal for the shipment of iron from Merthyr Tydfil down to Cardiff.
In 1840 this was supplanted by the new Taff Vale Railway. A year earlier the second
marquess of Bute had completed the first docks at Butetown, just south of Cardiff, getting
the jump on other South Wales ports. By the time it dawned on everyone what immense re-
