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Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the south-east of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the
county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
of the historic county of
Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...
and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed
capital of Wales The current capital of Wales is Cardiff. Historically, Wales did not have a definite capital. In 1955, the Minister for Welsh Affairs informally proclaimed Cardiff to be the capital of Wales. Since 1964, Cardiff has been home to government offi ...
. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and
Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...
. Cardiff is the main commercial centre of Wales as well as the base for the
Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
. At the 2021 census, the unitary authority area population was put at 362,400. The population of the wider urban area in 2011 was 479,000. In 2011, it ranked sixth in the world in a ''National Geographic'' magazine list of alternative tourist destinations. It is the most popular destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. Cardiff is a major centre for television and film production (such as ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', '' Torchwood'' and '' Sherlock'') and is the Welsh base for the main national broadcasters.
Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
contains the Senedd building (home to the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament) and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. Work continues at Cardiff Bay and in the centre, on projects such as Cardiff International Sports Village,
BBC drama village The BBC Drama Village is a television production facility run by the BBC. It is operated by their BBC Birmingham branch and based largely at the Selly Oak campus of the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England. The centre consists of fiv ...
, and a new business district.


Etymology

(the
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
name of the city) derives from the Middle Welsh . The change from to shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh ''f'' and ''dd'' , and was perhaps also driven by
folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
. This
sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
had probably first occurred in the Middle Ages; both forms were current in the Tudor period. has its origins in post-Roman
Brythonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...
words meaning "the fort of the Taff". The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans. is Welsh for ''fort'' and is in effect a form of (Taff), the river which flows by Cardiff Castle, with the showing consonant mutation to and the vowel showing
affection Affection or fondness is a "disposition or state of mind or body" that is often associated with a feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology concerning emotion, disease, influence, and sta ...
as a result of a (lost)
genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
ending.Hywel Wyn Owen and Richard Morgan, ''Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales''. University of Wales Press, 2007, , p. 70. The
anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
''Cardiff'' is derived from , with the Welsh ''f'' borrowed as ''ff'' , as also happens in ''Taff'' (from Welsh ) and '' Llandaff'' (from Welsh ). The antiquarian William Camden (1551–1623) suggested that the name Cardiff may derive from * ("the Fort of Didius"), a name supposedly given in honour of , governor of a nearby province at the time when the Roman fort was established. Although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Pierce.


History


Origins

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
evidence from sites in and around Cardiff show that people had settled in the area by at least around 6000 BC, during the early Neolithic; about 1,500 years before either
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. These include the St Lythans burial chamber near Wenvoe, (approximately west of Cardiff city centre); the Tinkinswood burial chamber, near St. Nicholas (about west of Cardiff city centre), the Cae'rarfau Chambered Tomb, Creigiau (about northwest of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa long barrow, near Coedkernew,
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...
(about northeast of Cardiff city centre). A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of the Garth, within the county's northern boundary. Four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiff's county boundaries, including
Caerau Hillfort Caerau Hillfort ( cy, Bryngaer Caerau) is a large triangular multivallate Iron Age hillfort, built on a previously occupied Neolithic site, occupying the western tip of an extensive ridge-top plateau in the western suburbs of Caerau and Ely ...
, an enclosed area of . Until the
Roman conquest of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Staneg ...
, Cardiff was part of the territory of the
Silures The Silures ( , ) were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales and perhaps some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the Ordovices; to the east by the Dobunn ...
– a Celtic British tribe that flourished in the Iron Age – whose territory included the areas that would become known as Breconshire,
Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
and Glamorgan. The fort established by the Romans near the mouth of the River Taff in AD 75, in what would become the north western boundary of the centre of Cardiff, was built over an extensive settlement that had been established by the Romans in the 50s AD. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with '' Isca Augusta'' ( Caerleon) that acted as border defences. The fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a civilian settlement, or '' vicus'', was established. It was likely made up of traders who made a living from the fort, ex-soldiers and their families. A Roman villa has been discovered at
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...
. Contemporary with the Saxon Shore forts of the 3rd and 4th centuries, a stone fortress was established at Cardiff. Similar to the shore forts, the fortress was built to protect Britannia from raiders. Coins from the reign of Gratian indicate that Cardiff was inhabited until at least the 4th century; the fort was abandoned towards the end of the 4th century, as the last Roman legions left the province of Britannia with Magnus Maximus. Little is known of the fort and civilian settlement in the period between the Roman departure from Britain and the Norman Conquest. The settlement probably shrank in size and may even have been abandoned. In the absence of Roman rule, Wales was divided into small kingdoms; early on, Meurig ap Tewdrig emerged as the local king in Glywysing (which later became
Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...
). The area passed through his family until the advent of the Normans in the 11th century.


Norman occupation and Middle Ages

In 1081
William I, King of England William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
, began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort. Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. The castle was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period by
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900) was a landed aristocracy, aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, and architectural patron. Succeeding to the Marquess of ...
, and the architect William Burges. Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in the wall facings. A town grew up under the castle, consisting mainly of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages – a normal size for a Welsh town in the period. It was the centre of the Norman Marcher Lordship of Glamorgan. By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, although it remained relatively small compared with notable towns in England and continued to be contained within its walls, which were begun as a wooden palisade in the early 12th century. It was of sufficient size and importance to receive a series of charters, notably in 1331 from William La Zouche, Lord of Glamorgan through marriage with the de Clare family, Edward III in 1359, then Henry IV in 1400, and later Henry VI. In 1404,
Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
burned Cardiff and took possession of the Castle. As many of the buildings were made of timber and tightly packed within the town walls, much of Cardiff was destroyed. His statue was erected in Cardiff Town Hall in the early 20th century, reflecting the complex, often conflicting cultural identity of Cardiff as capital of Wales. It was soon rebuilt on the same street plan and began to flourish again. Besides serving an important political role in the governance of the fertile south Glamorgan coastal plain, Cardiff was a busy port in the Middle Ages and declared a
staple port The staple right, also translated stacking right or storage right, both from the Dutch ''stapelrecht'', was a medieval right accorded to certain ports, the staple ports. It required merchant barges or ships to unload their goods at the port and to ...
in 1327.


County town of Glamorganshire

In 1536, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 led to the creation of Glamorganshire and Cardiff was made the
county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
, it also became part of
Kibbor Kibbor is one of the Hundred (county subdivision), hundreds of Glamorgan created by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, Laws in Wales Acts 1535 corresponding approximately to the commote of ''Kwmwd Kibwr'' (Ceibwr in contemporary Welsh) of the f ...
hundred, around the same time the Herberts became the most powerful family in the area. In 1538,
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
closed Cardiff's Dominican and Franciscan friaries, whose remains were used as building materials. A writer in this period noted: "The River Taff runs under the walls of his honours castle and from the north part of the town to the south part where there is a fair quay and a safe harbour for shipping." Cardiff became a borough in 1542 and further Royal Charters were granted to it by Elizabeth I in 1600 and James I in 1608. In 1573, it was made a head port for collection of customs duties.
Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...
historian George Owen described Cardiff in 1602 as "the fayrest towne in Wales yett not the welthiest". It gained a second Royal Charter in 1608. A disastrous flood in the
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
on 30 January 1607 (now believed to have been a tidal wave) changed the course of the River Taff and ruined St Mary's Parish Church, which was replaced by a chapel of ease dedicated to St John the Baptist. During the Second English Civil War
St Fagans St Fagans ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan) is a village and community in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is home to the St Fagans National History Museum. History The name of the area invokes Saint Fagan, according to William of Malm ...
, just to the west of the town, the
Battle of St Fagans The Battle of St Fagans was a pitched battle during the Second English Civil War in 1648. A detachment from the New Model Army defeated an army of former Parliamentarian soldiers who had rebelled and were now fighting against Parliament. B ...
, between Royalist rebels and a
New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...
detachment, was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians that allowed Oliver Cromwell to conquer Wales. It was the last major battle in Wales, with about 200, mostly Royalist soldiers killed. Cardiff was at peace throughout the ensuing century. In 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and was later created
Baron Cardiff Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
. In 1778, he began renovating Cardiff Castle. A racecourse, printing press, bank and coffee house opened in the 1790s and Cardiff gained a
stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
service to London. Despite these improvements, Cardiff's position in the Welsh urban hierarchy declined over the 18th century. Iolo Morganwg called it "an obscure and inconsiderable place" and the 1801 census found a population of only 1,870, making it only the 25th largest town in Wales, well behind Merthyr and
Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
.


Building the docks

In 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He spent his life building the Cardiff docks and was later hailed as "the creator of modern Cardiff". A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol opened in 1815, and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established. After the Napoleonic Wars Cardiff suffered some social and industrial unrest, starting with the trial and hanging of Dic Penderyn in 1831. The town grew rapidly from the 1830s onwards, when the
Marquess of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart ...
built a
dock A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...
, which eventually linked to the Taff Vale Railway. Cardiff became the main port for coal exports from the Cynon, Rhondda, and
Rhymney Rhymney (; cy, Rhymni ) is a town and a community in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. With the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is ...
valleys, and grew in population at a rate of nearly 80 per cent per decade between 1840 and 1870. Much of this was due to migration from within and outside Wales: in 1841, a quarter of Cardiff's population were English-born and more than 10 per cent born in Ireland. By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales. Cardiff's status as the premier town in South Wales was confirmed when it was chosen as the site for the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in 1883. A permanent military presence was established with the completion of Maindy Barracks in 1877. Cardiff faced a challenge in the 1880s when David Davies of Llandinam and the
Barry Railway Company The Barry Railway Company was a railway and docks company in South Wales, first incorporated as the ''Barry Dock and Railway Company'' in 1884. It arose out of frustration among Rhondda coal owners at congestion and high charges at Cardiff Dock ...
promoted rival docks at
Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...
. These had the advantage of being accessible in all tides: David Davies claimed his venture would cause "grass to grow in the streets of Cardiff". From 1901 coal exports from Barry surpassed those from Cardiff, but the administration of the coal trade remained centred on Cardiff, in particular its Coal Exchange, where the price of coal on the British market was determined and the first million-pound deal was struck in 1907. The city also strengthened its industrial base when the owners of the Dowlais Ironworks in Merthyr (who would later form part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds) built a
steelworks A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...
close to the docks at East Moors, which Lord Bute opened on 4 February 1891.


County Borough of Cardiff

Cardiff became a county borough on 1 April 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. The town had grown rapidly and had a population of over 123,000. It retained its county borough status until 1974.


City and capital city status

King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on 28 October 1905. It acquired a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1916. Later, more national institutions came to the city, including the National Museum of Wales, the Welsh National War Memorial, and the University of Wales Registry Building, but it was denied the
National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million boo ...
, partly because the library's founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have "a non-Welsh population". After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the
interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
. By 1936, trade was at less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for Welsh coal. Bomb damage in the Cardiff Blitz of World War II included the devastation of Llandaff Cathedral, and in the immediate postwar years, the city's link with the Bute family came to an end. The city was recognised as the capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, in a written reply by the Home Secretary,
Gwilym Lloyd George Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby, (4 December 1894 – 14 February 1967) was a Welsh politician and cabinet minister. The younger son of David Lloyd George, he served as Home Secretary from 1954 to 1957. Background, education and mil ...
. Caernarfon had also vied for the title. Welsh local authorities had been divided: only 76 out of 161 chose Cardiff in a 1924 poll organised by the ''South Wales Daily News''. The subject was not debated again until 1950, and meanwhile Cardiff took steps to promote its "Welshness". The stalemate between Cardiff and cities such as Caernarfon and Aberystwyth was not broken until Cardiganshire County Council decided to support Cardiff; and in a new local authority vote, 134 out of 161 voted for Cardiff. Cardiff therefore celebrated two important anniversaries in 2005. The Encyclopedia of Wales notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales "had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal Conservative constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have." Although the city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff only became a centre of national administration with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the
Arts Council of Wales The Arts Council of Wales (ACW; cy, Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru) is a Welsh Government-sponsored body, responsible for funding and developing the arts in Wales. Established within the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1946, as the Welsh Arts ...
and the Welsh Development Agency, most of which were based in Cardiff. The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population in the 1980s, consistent with a wider pattern of counter-urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered to become one of the few cities outside London where population grew in the 1990s. During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had "reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff" and "contributed to a massive improvement in the quality of the built environment, although it had "failed "to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated." In the
1997 Welsh devolution referendum The Welsh devolution referendum of 1997 was a pre-legislative referendum held in Wales on 18 September 1997 over whether there was support for the creation of a National Assembly for Wales, and therefore a degree of self-government. The refere ...
, Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for a British rather than exclusively Welsh identity. The relative lack of local support for the Assembly and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the originally preferred venue,
Cardiff City Hall City Hall ( cy, Neuadd y ddinas) is a civic building in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales, UK. It serves as Cardiff's centre of local government. It was built as part of the Cathays Park civic centre development and opened in October 1906. Built of ...
, encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly. However, the Assembly was eventually located at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay in 1999. In 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by
Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...
, was opened.


Government

The Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ) has been based in Cardiff Bay since its formation in 1999 as the "National Assembly for Wales". The Senedd building was opened on 1 March 2006 by The Queen. The Members of the Senedd (MSs), the Senedd Commission and ministerial support staff are based in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff elects four constituency Members of the Senedd to the Senedd; the constituencies for the Senedd are the same as for the UK Parliament. All of the city's electors have an extra vote for the South Wales Central regional members; this system increases proportionality to the Senedd. The most recent Senedd general election was held on 6 May 2021. In the Senedd, Cardiff is represented by Jenny Rathbone (Labour) in Cardiff Central,
Julie Morgan Julie Morgan (née Edwards; 2 November 1944) is a Welsh Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of the Senedd for Cardiff North seat in the Senedd since the 2011 election. She was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff Nort ...
(Labour) in Cardiff North, Vaughan Gething (Labour) in Cardiff South and Penarth and
First Minister of Wales , insignia = First Minister of Wales logo.png , insigniasize = 120px , insigniacaption = Logo , flag = Flag of Wales.svg , flagsize = 120px , flagborder = yes , flagcaption = Flag of Wales , image = File:Mark Drakeford (cropped).jpg , ...
Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford (born 19 September 1954) is a Welsh politician serving as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018. He previously served in the Welsh Government as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2016 to 2018 and Minist ...
(Labour) in Cardiff West. At Westminster, Cardiff is represented by four Labour MPs: Jo Stevens in Cardiff Central,
Anna McMorrin Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (born 24 September 1971) is a Welsh Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff North since 2017. She has served as the Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice since 2021, and was a ...
in Cardiff North, Stephen Doughty in Cardiff South and Penarth, and Kevin Brennan in Cardiff West. The Welsh Government is headquartered in Cardiff's Cathays Park, where most of its civil servants are based, with smaller numbers in other central locations: Cathays,
Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...
, and
Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
. There are other Welsh Government offices in other parts of Wales, such as Llandudno and Aberystwyth, and there are international offices.


Local government

Between 1889 and 1974 Cardiff was a county borough governed by Cardiff County Borough Council (known as Cardiff City Council after 1905). Between 1974 and 1996, Cardiff was governed by
Cardiff City Council Cardiff City Council was the local government district authority that administered the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, from 1974 until 1996. The district council replaced the pre-1974 county borough council. It was succeeded in 1996 by Car ...
, a district council of South Glamorgan. Since local government reorganisation in 1996, Cardiff has been governed by the City and County Council of Cardiff, based at County Hall in Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay. Voters elect 75 councillors every four years. Between the 2004 and 2012 local elections, no individual political party held a majority on Cardiff County Council. The Liberal Democrats held the largest number of seats and Cllr
Rodney Berman Rodney Simon Berman OBE is a Liberal Democrat politician, currently a councillor for the Penylan ward of Cardiff. He was formerly a councillor for Plasnewydd ward, and was also leader of Cardiff Council between 2004 and 2012. Early life Born ...
was Leader of the council. The Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru formed a partnership administration. In the
2012 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2012. International * 2012 United Nations Security Council election Africa Egypt * 2012 Egyptian presidential election Mali * 2012 Malian presidential election * 2012 Malian parliamentary electio ...
the Labour Party achieved an outright majority, after gaining an additional 33 seats across the city. Cardiff is divided into communities, several with their own community council and the rest governed directly by Cardiff City Council. Elections are held every five years. The last contested elections would have been held at the same time as the
2017 Cardiff Council election The 2017 Cardiff Council Election was held on 4 May 2017 as part of the national 2017 Welsh local elections. The elections were preceded by the 2012 Cardiff Council election, 2012 elections and will be followed by the 2022 Cardiff Council elect ...
had there been more candidates standing than available seats. Those with community councils are: *Lisvane (10 seats) *Old St. Mellons (9 seats) *Pentyrch (13 seats) *Radyr & Morganstown (13 seats) *Tongwynlais (9 seats) *St Fagans (9 seats)


Geography

The centre of Cardiff is relatively flat and bounded by hills to the east, north and west. Its location influenced its development as the world's largest coal port, notably its proximity and easy access to the coalfields of the South Wales Valleys. The highest point in the local authority area is Garth Hill,
above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...
. Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones. This reclaimed marshland stretches from Chepstow to the
Ely Estuary Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
, which is the natural boundary of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Triassic landscapes of this part of the world are usually shallow and low-lying, consistent with the flatness of the centre of Cardiff. The classic Triassic
marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...
, sand and
conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...
rocks are used predominantly throughout Cardiff as building materials. Many of these Triassic rocks are purplish, especially the coastal marl found near Penarth. One of the Triassic rocks used in Cardiff is "Radyr Stone", a freestone which as its name suggests is quarried in the Radyr district. Cardiff has also imported some materials for buildings:
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
sandstones (the Old Red Sandstone) from the
Brecon Beacons The Brecon Beacons ( cy, Bannau Brycheiniog, ) are a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of Old Red Sandstone peaks which lie to the south of Brecon. Sometimes referred to as "the central Beacons" t ...
has been used. Most famously, the buildings of Cathays Park, the civic centre in the centre of the city, are built of
Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
from Dorset. A widely used building stone in Cardiff is the yellow-grey Liassic limestone rock of the Vale of Glamorgan, including the rare "Sutton Stone", a conglomerate of lias limestone and
carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
limestone. Cardiff is bordered to the west by the rural district of the Vale of Glamorgan, also known as the Garden of Cardiff, to the east by the city of Newport; to the north by the South Wales Valleys, and to the south by the Severn Estuary and
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
. The River Taff winds through the city centre and together with the River Ely flows into the freshwater Cardiff Bay. A third river, the
Rhymney Rhymney (; cy, Rhymni ) is a town and a community in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. With the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is ...
, flows through the east of the city directly into the Severn Estuary. Cardiff lies near the
Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...
Heritage Coast, stretching westward from Penarth and Barry – commuter towns of Cardiff – with striped yellow-blue Jurassic limestone cliffs. The Glamorgan coast is the only part of the Celtic Sea with exposed Jurassic ( blue lias) geology. This stretch of coast with its reefs, sandbanks and serrated cliffs was a ship graveyard; many ships sailing to Cardiff during the industrial era were wrecked on this hostile coastline during west/south-westerly gales. Smuggling, deliberate shipwrecking and attacks on ships were also common.


Cityscape

"Inner Cardiff" consists of the wards of Plasnewydd, Gabalfa, Roath, Cathays, Adamsdown and Splott ward on the north and east of the city centre, and Butetown, Grangetown, Riverside and
Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...
to the south and west. The inner-city areas to the south of the A4161 road, known as the "Southern Arc", are with the exception of Cardiff Bay some of the poorest districts of Wales, with low levels of economic activity. On the other hand, Gabalfa, Plasnewydd and Cathays north of the 'arc' have large student populations, and Pontcanna (north of Riverside and alongside Canton) is a favourite for students and young professionals. Penylan, to the north east of Roath Park, is an affluent area popular with older parents and the retired. To the west lie
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...
and Caerau, which have some of the largest housing estates in the United Kingdom. With the exception of some outlying privately built estates at Michaelston-super-Ely, this is an economically disadvantaged area with high numbers of unemployed households. Culverhouse Cross is a more affluent western area of the city. Fairwater, Heath, Birchgrove, Gabalfa,
Mynachdy Mynachdy () is a district of the city of Cardiff, Wales. Mynachdy is situated between Gabalfa, Birchgrove and Cathays. Mynachdy is often paired with neighbouring Gabalfa, and shares its councillors. It is close to a few universities such as Cardi ...
, Llandaff North, Llandaff, Llanishen,
Radyr Radyr ( cy, Radur) is an outer suburb of Cardiff, about northwest of Cardiff city centre. Radyr is part of Radyr and Morganstown Community, for which the 2011 Census recorded a population of 6,417. Morganstown is north of Radyr, on the othe ...
, Whitchurch &
Tongwynlais is a village and community in the north of Cardiff, Wales, north of the M4 motorway in the Taff Valley. It is notable as the location of the hillside landmark, . The population as of the 2011 census was 1871. Toponymy is believed to have ob ...
, Rhiwbina, Thornhill,
Lisvane Lisvane ( cy, Llys-faen) is an affluent community in the north of Cardiff, the capital of Wales, located north of the city centre. Lisvane is generally considered to be one of the wealthiest residential areas of Wales, with an average house ...
and Cyncoed lie in an arc from the north-west to the north-east of the centre. Lisvane, Cyncoed, Radyr and Rhiwbina contain some of the most expensive housing in Wales. Further east lie the wards of Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, Rumney, Pentwyn, Llanrumney, Llanedeyrn and Trowbridge. The last four are largely public housing stock, although much new private housing is being built in Trowbridge. Pontprennau is the newest "suburb" of Cardiff, while Old St Mellons has a history going back to the 11th-century Norman Conquest. The region that may be called "Rural Cardiff" contains the villages of
St Fagans St Fagans ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan) is a village and community in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is home to the St Fagans National History Museum. History The name of the area invokes Saint Fagan, according to William of Malm ...
, Creigiau, Pentyrch,
Tongwynlais is a village and community in the north of Cardiff, Wales, north of the M4 motorway in the Taff Valley. It is notable as the location of the hillside landmark, . The population as of the 2011 census was 1871. Toponymy is believed to have ob ...
and Gwaelod-y-garth. In 2017, plans were approved for a new suburb of 7,000 homes between
Radyr Radyr ( cy, Radur) is an outer suburb of Cardiff, about northwest of Cardiff city centre. Radyr is part of Radyr and Morganstown Community, for which the 2011 Census recorded a population of 6,417. Morganstown is north of Radyr, on the othe ...
and
St Fagans St Fagans ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan) is a village and community in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is home to the St Fagans National History Museum. History The name of the area invokes Saint Fagan, according to William of Malm ...
, known as Plasdŵr. St Fagans, home to the Museum of Welsh Life, is protected from further development. Since 2000, there has been a marked change of scale and building height in Cardiff, with the development of the
city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
's first purpose-built high-rise apartments. Tall buildings have been built in the city centre and Cardiff Bay, and more are planned.


Climate

Cardiff, in the north temperate zone, has a maritime climate ( Köppen: Cfb) marked by mild weather that is often cloudy, wet and windy. Summers tend to be warm and sunny, with average maxima between . Winters are fairly wet, but excessive rainfall as well as frost are rare. Spring and autumn feel similar and the temperatures tend to stay above – also the average annual daytime temperature. Rain is unpredictable at any time of year, although showers tend to be shorter in summer. The northern part of the county, being higher and inland, tends to be cooler and wetter than the city centre. Cardiff's maximum and minimum monthly temperatures average (July) and (February).
For Wales, the temperatures average (July) and (February). Cardiff has 1,518 hours of sunshine in an average year (Wales 1,388.7 hours). Cardiff is sunniest in July, with an average 203.4 hours during the month (Wales 183.3 hours), and least sunny in December with 44.6 hours (Wales 38.5 hours). Cardiff experiences less rainfall than average for Wales. It falls on 146 days in an average year, with total annual rainfall of . Monthly rainfall patterns show that from October to January, average monthly rainfall in Cardiff exceeds each month, the wettest month being December with and the driest from April to June, with average monthly rainfall fairly consistent between .


Demography

After a period of decline in the 1970s and 1980s, Cardiff's population is growing again. It reached 362,400 in the 2021 census, compared to a 2011 census figure of 346,100. Between mid-2007 and mid-2008, Cardiff was the fastest-growing local authority in Wales, with growth of 1.2%. According to 2001 census data, Cardiff was the 21st largest urban area. The Cardiff Larger Urban Zone (a
Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...
definition including the Vale of Glamorgan and a number of local authorities in the Valleys) has 841,600 people, the 10th largest LUZ in the UK. The Cardiff and South Wales Valleys metropolitan area has a population of nearly 1.1 million. Official census estimates of the city's total population have been disputed. The city council published two articles arguing that the 2001 census seriously under-reported the population of Cardiff, and in particular the ethnic minority population of some inner city areas. The Welsh Government's official mid-year estimate of the population of the Cardiff local authority area in 2019 was 366,903. At the 2011, census the official population of the Cardiff Built Up Area (BUA) was put at 447,287. The BUA is not contiguous with the local authority boundary and aggregates data at a lower level; for Cardiff this includes the urban part of Cardiff, Penarth/Dinas Powys, Caerphilly and Pontypridd. Cardiff has an ethnically diverse population due to past trading connections, post-war immigration and large numbers of foreign students who attend university in the city. The ethnic make-up of Cardiff's population at the 2011 census was: 84.7% White, 1.6% mixed White and Black African/Caribbean, 0.7% mixed White and Asian, 0.6% mixed other, 8.1% Asian, 2.4% Black, 1.4% Arab and 0.6% other ethnic groups. This means almost 53,000 people from a non-white ethnic group reside in the city. This diversity, especially that of the city's long-established African and Arab communities, has been celebrated in cultural exhibitions and events, along with a number of books published on this subject.


Health

There are seven NHS hospitals in the city, the largest being the University Hospital of Wales, which is the third largest hospital in the UK and deals with most accidents and emergencies. The University Dental Hospital, which provides emergency treatment, is also located on this site. Llandough Hospital is located in the south of the city.
St. David's Hospital ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...
, the city's newest hospital, built behind the former building, is located in Canton and provides services for the elderly and children. Cardiff Royal Infirmary is on Newport Road, near the city centre. The majority of this hospital was closed in 1999, but the west wing remained open for clinic services, genitourinary medicine and rehabilitation treatment. Rookwood Hospital and the Velindre Cancer Centre are also located within Cardiff. They are administered by the
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB) ( cy, Bwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Caerdydd a'r Fro) is the local health board of NHS Wales for Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan, in the south-east of Wales. Formed on 1 October 2009 through the amalgama ...
, with the exception of Velindre, which is run by a separate trust. Spire Healthcare, a private hospital, is in Pontprennau.


Language

Cardiff has a chequered linguistic history with
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
, English, Latin,
Norse Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nor ...
and Norman French preponderant at different times. Welsh was the majority language in Cardiff from the 13th century until the city's explosive growth in the Victorian era. As late as 1850, five of the 12
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
churches within the current city boundaries conducted their services exclusively in Welsh, while only two worshipped exclusively in English. By 1891, the percentage of Welsh speakers had fallen to 27.9% and only
Lisvane Lisvane ( cy, Llys-faen) is an affluent community in the north of Cardiff, the capital of Wales, located north of the city centre. Lisvane is generally considered to be one of the wealthiest residential areas of Wales, with an average house ...
, Llanedeyrn and Creigiau remained as majority Welsh-speaking communities. The Welsh language became grouped around a small cluster of chapels and churches, the most notable of which is Tabernacl in the city centre, one of four UK churches chosen to hold official services to commemorate the new millennium. The city's first Welsh-language school (Ysgol Gymraeg Bryntaf) was established in the 1950s. Welsh has since regained ground. Aided by Welsh-medium education and migration from other parts of Wales, there are now many more Welsh speakers: their numbers doubled between the 1991 and 2011 censuses, from 18,071 (6.6%) to 36,735 (11.1%) residents aged three years and above. The LSOA (Lower Layer Super Output Area) with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in the city centre is found in
Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...
, at 25.5%. The LSOA with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in the whole of Cardiff is Whitchurch, at 26%.
Cardiff City Council Cardiff City Council was the local government district authority that administered the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, from 1974 until 1996. The district council replaced the pre-1974 county borough council. It was succeeded in 1996 by Car ...
adopted a five-year Welsh-language strategy in 2017, aimed at increasing the number of Welsh speakers (aged 3+) in Cardiff by 15.9%, from 36,735 in 2011 to 42,584 residents by the 2021 Census. The ONS estimated that in December 2020, 89,900 (24.8%) of Cardiff's population could speak Welsh. In addition to English and Welsh, the diversity of Cardiff's population (including foreign students) means that many other languages are spoken. One study has found that Cardiff has speakers of at least 94 languages, with Somali, Urdu, Bengali and Arabic being the most commonly spoken foreign ones. The modern Cardiff accent is distinct from that of nearby South Wales Valleys. It is marked primarily by: *Substitution of by *''here'' iːəpronounced as in the broader form *The vowel of ''start'' may be realised as or even , so that ''Cardiff'' is pronounced .


Language schools

Due to its diversity and large student population, more people now come to the city to learn English. Foreign students from Arab states and other European countries are a common sight on the streets of Cardiff. The British Council has an office in the city centre and there are six accredited schools in the area.


Religion

Since 1922, Cardiff has included Llandaff within its boundary, along with the
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
Llandaff Cathedral, the parish church of Llandaff and the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, head of the Church in Wales and the Diocese of Llandaff. There is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city. Since 1916, Cardiff has been the seat of a Catholic archbishop, but there appears to have been a fall in the estimated Catholic population, with numbers in 2006 around 25,000 fewer than in 1980. Likewise, the Jewish population appears to have fallen – there are two synagogues in Cardiff, one in Cyncoed and one in Moira Terrace, as opposed to seven at the turn of the 20th century. There are several nonconformist chapels, an early 20th century Greek Orthodox church and 11 mosques. In the 2001 census, 66.9% of Cardiff's population described itself as Christian, a percentage point below the Welsh and UK averages. The oldest of the non-Christian communities in Wales is Judaism. Jews were not permitted to live in England and Wales between the 1290 Edict of Expulsion and the 17th century. A Welsh Jewish community was re-established in the 18th century. There was once a fairly substantial Jewish population in South Wales, most of which has disappeared. The Orthodox Jewish community congregations are consolidated in the
Cardiff United Synagogue The Cardiff United Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Cyncoed suburb of Cardiff, Wales. The synagogue maintains daily prayer services, led by Rabbi Michoel Rose. The synagogue also provides educational classes, youth and festivals p ...
in Cyncoed, which was dedicated by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in 2003. The
Cardiff Reform Synagogue Cardiff Reform Synagogue ( cy, Synagog Ddiwygiedig Caerdydd; formerly Cardiff New Synagogue; cy, Synagog Newydd Caerdydd, links=no) is a synagogue in Cardiff, Wales. It is a member of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Congregation Cardiff New S ...
is in Adamsdown. Cardiff's Muslim population is much above the Welsh average and the longest established in the UK, being started by Yemeni and Somali sailors settling in the 19th century. Cardiff now has over 11,000 Muslims with various national affiliations – nearly 52 per cent of the Muslim population in Wales. The proportion of Cardiff residents declaring themselves Hindu, Sikh and Jewish were all considerably higher than the Welsh averages, but lower than the UK figures. The city has had a Hindu community since Indian immigrants settled in the 1950s and 1960s. The first Hindu temple in the city was opened in Grangetown on 6 April 1979 on the site of an abandoned synagogue. The 25th anniversary of the founding was celebrated in September 2007 with a parade of over 3,000 people through the city centre, including Hindus from across the United Kingdom and members of Cardiff's other religious communities. There are over 2,000 Hindus in Cardiff, worshiping at three temples. In the 2001 census 18.8% of the city's population stated they had no religion, while 8.6% did not state a religion.


Economy

As the capital city of Wales, Cardiff is the main engine of growth in the Welsh economy. Though the population of Cardiff is about 10% of the Welsh population, the economy of Cardiff makes up nearly 20% of Welsh GDP and 40% of the city's workforce are daily in-commuters from the surrounding South Wales area. Industry has played a major part in Cardiff's development for many centuries. The main catalyst for its transformation from a small town into a big city was the demand for coal required in making iron and later steel, brought to sea by
packhorse A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of ...
from
Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...
. This was first achieved by building a canal from Merthyr ( above sea level) to the
Taff Estuary Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of wat ...
at Cardiff. Eventually the Taff Vale Railway replaced the canal barges and massive marshalling yards sprang up as new docks were developed in Cardiff – all prompted by the soaring worldwide demand for coal from the South Wales valleys. At its peak, Cardiff's port area, known as
Tiger Bay Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is refe ...
, became the busiest port in the world and – for some time – the world's most important coal port. In the years leading up to the First World War, more than 10 million tonnes of coal was exported annually from Cardiff Docks. In 1907, Cardiff's Coal Exchange was the first host to a business deal for a million pounds Sterling. The high demand for Welsh coal and specifically Welsh artificial fuel, named Patent Fuel, is shown by the numberous factories producing this fuel, with the same recipe, in the region of Cardiff. Most well known factories were the Star Patent fuel Co., the Crown Patent fuel, the Cardiff Patent fuel etc. After a period of decline, due to low demand on coal, Cardiff's port has started to grow again – over 3 million tonnes of cargo passed through the docks in 2007. Cardiff today is the main finance and business services centre in Wales, with strong representation of finance and business services in the local economy. This sector, combined with the public administration, education and health sectors, have accounted for about 75% of Cardiff's economic growth since 1991. The city was recently placed seventh overall in the top 50 European cities in the fDI 2008 Cities of the Future list published by the fDi magazine, and ranked seventh in terms of attracting foreign investment. Notable companies such as Legal & General,
Admiral Insurance Admiral Group plc is a British financial services company headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, and markets the ''Admiral'', ''Bell'', ''Elephant'', ''Diamond'' and ''Veyg ...
, HBOS, Zurich, ING Direct, The AA, Principality Building Society, 118118, British Gas,
Brains The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head ( cephalization), usually near organs for special ...
, SWALEC Energy and BT, all operate large national or regional headquarters and contact centres in the city, some of them based in Cardiff's office towers such as Capital Tower and Brunel House. Other major employers include NHS Wales and the Senedd. On 1 March 2004, Cardiff was granted Fairtrade City status. Cardiff is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United Kingdom, receiving 18.3 million visitors in 2010 and generating £852 million for the city's economy. One result is that one in five employees in Cardiff is based in the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector, highlighting the growing retail and tourism industries in the city. The city has many hotels of varying sizes and standards, providing almost 9,000 available beds. Cardiff is home to the Welsh media and a large media sector with BBC Cymru Wales,
S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...
and ITV Wales all having studios in the city. There is a large independent TV production industry sector of over 600 companies, employing around 6,000, with a turnover estimated at £350 million. Just to the north-west of the city, in
Rhondda Cynon Taff Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vil ...
, the first completely new film studios in the UK for 30 years are being built, to be named Valleywood. The studios are set to be the biggest in the UK. In 2011 the BBC completed the Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay to film dramas such as ''Casualty'', ''Doctor Who'', and ''Pobol y Cwm''. Cardiff has several regeneration projects, such as St David's 2 Centre and surrounding areas of the city centre, and the £1.4 billion International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay, which played a part in the London 2012 Olympics. It features the only Olympic-standard swimming pool in Wales, the
Cardiff International Pool Cardiff International Pool is an Olympic-sized swimming pool built as a public-private funded project; with a partnership between Cardiff Council (land owner), OLLC which is a partnership between Orion Land & Leisure and Explore Investments (de ...
, which opened on 12 January 2008. According to the Welsh Rugby Union, the Principality Stadium contributed £1 billion to the Welsh economy in the ten years after it opened in 1999, with around 85% of that staying in the Cardiff area.


Shopping

Most of Cardiff's shopping portfolio is in the
city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
around Queen Street, St Mary Street and High Street, with large suburban
retail parks A retail park is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom and other European countries. They form a key aspect of European retail geographies, alongside indoor shopping centres, standalo ...
in Cardiff Bay, Culverhouse Cross, Leckwith,
Newport Road Newport Road is a 4.7 mi (7.5 km) road leading east from the centre of Cardiff, Wales, towards Newport, until it joins the A48 at St Mellons. Description Newport Road follows the route of the A4161 through Roath and the B4487 th ...
and Pontprennau, together with markets in the city centre and Splott. A £675 million regeneration programme for Cardiff's
St. David's Centre St David's ( cy, Dewi Sant), previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David ...
was completed in 2009, providing a total of of shopping space, making it one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom. The centre was named the international shopping centre of the year in 2010 by Retail Leisure International (RLI). The Castle Quarter is a commercial area in the north of the city centre, which includes some of Cardiff's Victorian and Edwardian arcades: Castle Arcade, Morgan Arcade and Royal Arcade, and principal shopping streets: St Mary Street, High Street, The Hayes, and Queen Street.


Transport


Rail

Cardiff Central railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Cardiff Central station (26526139271).jpg , caption = 1930s frontage of Cardiff Central station (northern entrance) , borough = Cardiff, City and County of Cardiff , country = Wales , coordin ...
is the largest railway station in Wales, with nine platforms coping with over 12.5 million passengers a year. It provides direct services to Bridgend and
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...
, long-distance, cross-Wales services to Wrexham and
Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...
, and services to Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London. Cardiff Central Station is situated within the southern border of what was known Temperance Town, a former residential area within central Cardiff. Cardiff Queen Street railway station is the second busiest in Wales and the hub for the Valley Lines services that connect the South Wales Valleys and the Cardiff suburbs with the city centre. It is located at the eastern end of the city centre and provides services to Cardiff Bay. Cardiff has a suburban rail system known as the Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes, operated by Transport for Wales. There are eight lines that serve 20 stations in the city, 26 in the wider urban area (including Taffs Well,
Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...
and Dinas Powys) and more than 60 in the South Wales valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan.


Metro

The South Wales Metro is an integrated public transport system under development in south-east Wales, centred on Cardiff. The project is to include the electrification of some of the existing railway lines. Four lines are under construction with a further three planned. The first lines will link and to , , and , with plans to also serve ,
St Mellons St Mellons ( cy, Llaneirwg) is a district and suburb of southeastern Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Prior to 1996 St Mellons was the name given to the community largely north of Newport Road (B4487) which included the old St Mellons village. ...
and Porth Teigr. Alongside this, current commuter services will be improved with a near-tripling in capacity on some routes to and .


Air

Domestic and international air links to Cardiff and South & West Wales are provided from Cardiff Airport (CWL), the only international airport in Wales. The airport lies in the village of Rhoose, west of the city. There are regular bus services linking the airport with Cardiff Central bus station, and a train service from Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station to Cardiff Central.


Road and bus

The
M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
connects Cardiff with
Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
to the west and
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...
and London to the east, with four junctions on the M4, including one with the A48(M). The A470 provides an important link from the city to the Heads of the Valleys road. When completed, the
A4232 The A4232, which is also known either as the Peripheral Distributor Road (PDR) ( cy, Ffordd Ddosbarthu Ymylol) or the Cardiff Link Road ( cy, Ffordd Gyswllt Caerdydd), is a distributor road in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The first section ...
– also known as the Peripheral Distributor Road – will form part of the Cardiff ring-road system, along with the M4 motorway between junctions 30 and 33. Cardiff has a comprehensive bus network, whose providers include the municipal bus company Cardiff Bus (routes within the city and to Newport, Barry and Penarth), NAT Group (cross-city and to Cardiff Airport), (to the South Wales Valleys) and First Cymru (to Cowbridge and Bridgend). National Express and Megabus provides direct services to major cities such as Bristol, London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester.


Cycle

The Taff Trail is a walking and cycle path running for between Cardiff Bay and Brecon in the
Brecon Beacons The Brecon Beacons ( cy, Bannau Brycheiniog, ) are a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of Old Red Sandstone peaks which lie to the south of Brecon. Sometimes referred to as "the central Beacons" t ...
National Park. It runs through Bute Park, Sophia Gardens and many other green areas within Cardiff. It is possible to cycle the entire distance of the Trail almost completely off-road, as it largely follows the River Taff and many of the disused railways of the Glamorganshire valleys.
Nextbike __FORCETOC__ nextbike is a German company that develops and operates public bike-sharing systems. The company was founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2004. It operates in cities in 25 countries including Germany, UK, New Zealand, Poland, Croatia, ...
have operated a public bike-hire scheme in the city since March 2018.


Water

The Aquabus water taxi runs every hour between the city centre (Taff Mead Embankment) and Cardiff Bay (Mermaid Quay), and between Cardiff Bay and Penarth Cardiff Bay Barrage. Throughout the year, Cardiff Waterbus sail between the Pierhead on The Waterfront and the Penarth end of the Cardiff Bay Barrage with short sightseeing cruises. Between March and October boats depart from Cardiff Bay for Flat Holm Island. The '' PS Waverley'' and '' MV Balmoral'' sail from Britannia Quay (in Roath Basin) to various destinations in the
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...
. File:Cardiff Central station (26526139271).jpg, Cardiff Central railway station File:Gorsaf Heol y Frenhines, Caerdydd.JPG, Cardiff Queen Street railway station File:Cardiff Airport (Oct 2010).jpg, Cardiff Airport File:Cardiff Bus double decker (Central Bus Station).jpg, Cardiff Bus has the most bus services operating in the Cardiff area. File:Cycle lane in Excalibur Drive, Cardiff.jpg, Typical cycle lane in Cardiff File:Aquabushydro1.jpg, Aquabus


Telecommunications

029 is the current telephone dialling code for Cardiff, as well as for the neighbouring towns of Penarth, Dinas Powys and
Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...
. The dialling code is optional when dialling within the area: one can dial between any two phones within the 09 code using only the eight-digit local number. Prior to the Big Number Change on 22 April 2000 the area had shorter, six-digit local numbers with an area code of 01222. This was 0222 before May 1995, derived from 0 (indicating it was a trunk call), 22 (CA on a telephone pad, for CArdiff) and 2 (as 220 was used for CAmbridge and 221 for BAth). Before the introduction of automated trunk call dialling, non-local numbers were accessed through a system of manual telephone exchanges, in common with rest if the United Kingdom. There remains a common misconception that local numbers are still six digits long and that the code is 02920, even though there are newer Cardiff numbers in the ranges (029) 21xx xxxx and (029) 22xx xxxx.


Education

Cardiff is home to four major institutions of higher education:
Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...
, Cardiff Metropolitan University, University of South Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Cardiff University was founded by a royal charter in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, is a member of the Russell Group of leading research led universities, having most of its campus in Cathays and the city centre. Cardiff Metropolitan University (formerly UWIC) has campuses in the Llandaff, Cyncoed and city centre areas, and is part of the confederal University of Wales. The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire established in 1949 and is based in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The University of South Wales's Cardiff campus, Atrium, is home to the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries and is located in the city centre. The total number of higher education students in the city is around 43,900. The city also has two
further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
colleges: Cardiff and Vale College and St David's College. The former is the result of a merger, completed in August 2011, between
Coleg Glan Hafren Coleg Glan Hafren, formerly Rumney College (and before that Rumney College of Technology), was a Further Education college based in Cardiff which merged with Barry College in September 2011 to form the new Cardiff and Vale College. Background ...
and
Barry College Barry College was a Further Education college in Barry, Wales which merged with Coleg Glan Hafren in September 2011 to form the new Cardiff and Vale College. The college admits approximately 10,000 students per year. It is partnered with the Univ ...
. Further education is also offered at most high schools in the city. Cardiff has three state nursery schools (one bilingual), 98 state primary schools (two bilingual, fifteen Welsh medium), and 19 state secondary schools (three Welsh medium). There are also several independent schools in the city, including St John's College,
Llandaff Cathedral School The Cathedral School, Llandaff (Welsh: ''Ysgol y Gadeirlan, Llandaf'') is a coeducational independent day school located in Llandaff, a district north of the Welsh capital Cardiff. Originally established as a choral foundation to train choir boys ...
, Cardiff Sixth Form College,
Kings Monkton School Kings Monkton School, formerly Monkton House, is a private day school for boys and girls aged 3–18. It is located in Roath, Cardiff near the city's Mansion House and Cardiff University. The school was founded in 1870 and more recently has ...
and Howell's School, a single-sex girls' school (until sixth form). In 2013 Cardiff Sixth Form College came top of the independent senior schools in the UK, which were based on the percentage of A* and A at Advanced Level. Also in the top 100 were St John's College and Howell's School. Notable schools include Whitchurch High School (the largest secondary school in Wales), Fitzalan High School (one of the most multi-cultural state schools in the UK), and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (the largest Welsh medium secondary school in Wales). As well as academic institutions, Cardiff is also home to other educational and learning organisations such as Techniquest, a hands-on science discovery centre that now has franchises throughout Wales, and is part of the Wales Gene Park in collaboration with Cardiff University, NHS Wales and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA). Cardiff is also home of the largest regional office of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). This office is home to the organisation's curriculum and assessment centre, which is responsible for overseeing the creation and grading of various IBDP assessments.


Landmarks and attractions

Cardiff has many landmark buildings such as the Principality Stadium, Pierhead Building the Welsh National Museum and the Senedd building, the home of the Welsh Parliament. Cardiff is also famous for Cardiff Castle,
St David's Hall St David's Hall (Welsh: ''Neuadd Dewi Sant'') is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales. St David's Hall is the National Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales. It hosts the annual Welsh Proms and the bienni ...
, Llandaff Cathedral and the Wales Millennium Centre.
Cardiff Castle Cardiff Castle ( cy, Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top ...
is a major tourist attraction in the city and is situated in the heart of the
city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
. The National History Museum at St Fagans in Cardiff is a large open-air museum housing dozens of buildings from throughout Welsh history that have been moved to the site in Cardiff. The Civic Centre in Cathays Park comprises a collection of Edwardian buildings such as the
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, National Museum and Gallery of Wales,
Cardiff Crown Court Cardiff Crown Court ( cy, Llys y Goron Caerdydd) is a historic building situated in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales. The building is a Grade I listed building. As a Crown Court venue it is part of the Wales Circuit of Her Majesty's Courts Servi ...
, and buildings forming part of Cardiff University, together with more modern civic buildings. These buildings are laid out around the Queen Alexandra Gardens, a formal park which contains the Welsh National War Memorial and a number of other, smaller memorials. In addition to Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch is a castle in
Tongwynlais is a village and community in the north of Cardiff, Wales, north of the M4 motorway in the Taff Valley. It is notable as the location of the hillside landmark, . The population as of the 2011 census was 1871. Toponymy is believed to have ob ...
, in the north of the city. The current castle is an elaborately decorated Victorian folly designed by William Burges for the Marquess and built in the 1870s, as an occasional retreat. However, the Victorian castle stands on the footings of a much older medieval castle possibly built by Ifor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also. The exterior has become a popular location for film and television productions. It rarely fulfilled its intended role as a retreat for the Butes, who seldom stayed there. For the Marquess, the pleasure had been in its creation, a pleasure lost following Burges's death in 1881. Cardiff claims the largest concentration of castles of any city in the world. As well as Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, there are the remains of two motte-and-bailey castles in Morganstown and Rhiwbina, known as
Morganstown Castle Mound Morganstown Castle Mound, also known as Morganstown Motte, is a medieval motte in the community of Morganstown in Cardiff, Wales, which is a scheduled monument. History Motte-and-bailey castles date back to the medieval period, from 1066 to 1540 ...
and
Twmpath Castle Twmpath Castle, also known as Twmpath Motte ( cy, Caer Cynwrig), is a medieval motte on the southern slope of Wenallt Hill near Rhiwbina in Cardiff, Wales, which is a scheduled monument. Toponymy Twmpath is a Welsh word literally meaning a hump. ...
or Twmpath Motte (also known as cy, Caer Cynwrig) respectively. Twmpath being a Welsh word for a small mound), which along with a castle at Whitchurch (known as Treoda and destroyed by housing in the 1960s) formed an arc of fortifications which divided the Norman lordship from the Welsh lordship of Senghenydd. Further up the Cefn Cibwr ridge on the boundary with Caerphilly there is also another ruined castle, known as Morgraig Castle ( cy, Castell Morgraig). Archaeological evidence suggests this castle was never finished, and it is debated whether the fortification was of Norman or Welsh origin. The concentration of castles indicates the moveable nature of the border between the Norman lordship of Glamorgan, centred at Cardiff, and its Welsh neighbours to the north. There is also the ruined Llandaff Bishop's Palace, also known as Llandaff Castle, which was the home of the medieval bishops, which was destroyed about 1403–1404 by the Welsh leader
Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...
. Now only the ruined gatehouse remains. Not strictly a castle in the historical sense, Saint Fagans Castle is a preserved 17th-century manor house, once the seat of the
Earls of Plymouth Earl of Plymouth is a title that has been created three times: twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The first creation was in 1675 for Charles FitzCharles, one of the dozens of illegitimate ...
. Other major tourist attractions are the
Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
regeneration sites, which include the recently opened Wales Millennium Centre and the Senedd building, and many other cultural and sites of interest, including the Cardiff Bay Barrage and the famous Coal Exchange. The New Theatre was founded in 1906 and refurbished in the 1980s. Until the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in 2004, it was the premier venue in Wales for touring theatre and dance companies. Other venues popular for concerts and sporting events include Motorpoint Arena, St David's Hall and the Principality Stadium. Cardiff Story, a museum documenting the city's history, has been open to the public since the spring of 2011. Cardiff has over 1,000 listed buildings, ranging from the more prominent buildings such as the castles, to smaller buildings, houses and structures. Cathedral Road was developed by the 3rd Marquis of Bute and is lined by fine villas, some backing on to Sophia Gardens. Cardiff has walks of special interest for tourists and ramblers alike, such as the Centenary Walk, which runs for within Cardiff city centre. This route passes through many of Cardiff's landmarks and historic buildings. The Animal Wall, designed by William Burges in 1866, marks the south edge of Bute Park on Castle Street. It bears 15 carved animal statues.


Culture and recreation

Cardiff has many cultural sites varying from the historical Cardiff Castle and out of town Castell Coch to the more modern Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Bay. Cardiff was a finalist in the European Capital of Culture 2008. In recent years Cardiff has grown in stature as a tourist destination, with recent accolades including Cardiff being voted the eighth favourite UK city by readers of the ''Guardian''. The city was also listed as one of the top 10 destinations in the UK on the official British tourist boards website Visit Britain, and US travel guide Frommers have listed Cardiff as one of 13 top destinations worldwide for 2008. Annual events in Cardiff that have become regular appearances in Cardiff's calendar include Sparks in the Park, The Great British Cheese Festival, Pride Cymru (formerly Cardiff Mardi Gras), Cardiff Winter Wonderland, Cardiff Festival and
Made in Roath Made in Roath is an annual arts festival that takes place every October in Roath, a neighbourhood just adjacent to the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The event showcases art, music, performance, literature and food in a variety of venues including ...
.


Music and performing arts

A large number of concerts are held in the city, the larger ones at St David's Hall, the Motorpoint Arena (previously known as the Cardiff International Arena) and occasionally the Principality Stadium. A number of festivals are also held in Cardiff, the largest being the Cardiff Big Weekend Festival, held annually in the city centre in the summer and playing host to free musical performances (from artists such as Ash,
Jimmy Cliff James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...
, Cerys Matthews, the Fun Loving Criminals, Soul II Soul and the Magic Numbers), fairground rides and cultural events such as a Children's Festival that takes place in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The annual festival claims to be the UK's largest free outdoor festival, attracting over 250,000 visitors in 2007. Cardiff hosted the
National Eisteddfod The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competitors ...
in 1883, 1899, 1938, 1960, 1978, 2008 and 2018. Cardiff is unique in Wales in having two permanent stone circles used by the Gorsedd of Bards during Eisteddfodau. The original circle stands in Gorsedd Gardens in front of the National Museum while its 1978 replacement is situated in Bute Park. Since 1983, Cardiff has hosted the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a world-renowned event on the opera calendar which is held every two years. The city also hosts smaller events. The Wales Millennium Centre hosts performances of opera, ballet, dance, comedy, musicals and is home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. St David's Hall (which hosts the Singer of the World competition) has regular performances of classical music and ballet as well as music of other genres. The largest of Cardiff's theatres is the New Theatre, situated in the city centre just off Queen Street. Other such venues include the Sherman Theatre, Chapter Arts Centre and the Gate Arts Centre. The Cardiff music scene is established and wide-ranging: home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Welsh National Opera; has produced several leading acts; has acted as a springboard for Welsh bands to become famous. Acts hailing from Cardiff include Charlotte Church, Shirley Bassey, Iwan Rheon, the Oppressed, Kids In Glass Houses, Los Campesinos, the Hot Puppies, The School (UK), the School, We're No Heroes, Budgie (band), Budgie and Shakin' Stevens. Also, performers such as the Automatic, Manic Street Preachers, Lostprophets, Super Furry Animals, Catatonia (band), Catatonia and Bullet for My Valentine have links with the city and are associated with the Cardiff music scene. In 2010, Cardiff was named the UK's second "most musical" city by PRS for Music.


Visual arts

Cardiff has held a photomarathon in the city each year since 2004, in which photographers compete to take the best 12 pictures of 12 previously unknown topics in 12 hours. An exhibition of winners and other entries is held in June/July each year.


Sporting venues

Sporting venues include the Millennium Stadium, Principality Stadium – the national stadium and home of the Wales national rugby union team – Sophia Gardens (cricket ground), Sophia Gardens for Glamorgan County Cricket Club), Cardiff City Stadium for Cardiff City F.C. and the Wales national football team, Wales football team), Cardiff International Sports Stadium, home of Cardiff Amateur Athletic Club), Cardiff Arms Park for Cardiff Blues and Cardiff RFC rugby union teams, and Ice Arena Wales for Cardiff Devils ice hockey team. It hosted the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and was dubbed European City of Sport for its role in international sporting events in 2009 and again in 2014. The Principality Stadium hosted 11 football matches during the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the opening event and the men's bronze medal match.


Recreation

Cardiff has strong nightlife. Most clubs and bars are situated in the city centre, especially St Mary Street. More recently Cardiff Bay has built up a strong night scene, with many modern bars and restaurants. The Brewery Quarter on St Mary Street is a recently developed venue for bars and restaurant with a central courtyard. Charles Street is also a popular part of the city. Cardiff is known for its extensive parks and other green spaces covering around 10% of the city's total area. Cardiff's main park, Bute Park (which was formerly the castle grounds) extends northwards from the top of one of Cardiff's main shopping street (Queen Street); when combined with the adjacent Llandaff Fields and Pontcanna Fields to the north-west it produces a massive open space skirting the River Taff. Other popular parks include Roath Park in the north, donated to the city by the John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, 3rd Marquess of Bute in 1887, which includes a popular boating lake; Victoria Park, Cardiff's first official park; and Thompson's Park, formerly home to an aviary removed in the 1970s. Wild open spaces include Howardian Local Nature Reserve, of the lower Rhymney valley in Penylan noted for its orchids, and Forest Farm Country Park, over along the River Taff in Whitchurch. Cardiff is one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK with Queen Street and St. Mary Street as the two main shopping streets with the three shopping arcades,
St. David's Centre St David's ( cy, Dewi Sant), previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David ...
, Queens Arcade and the Capitol Centre, Cardiff, Capitol Centre. The current expansion of St. David's Centre as part of the St David's 2 project has made it one of the largest shopping centres in the UK. As well as the modern shopping arcades, the city is home to Victorian shopping centres, such as High Street Arcade, Castle Arcade, Wyndham Arcade, Royal Arcade and Morgan Arcade. Also of note is The Hayes, home to Spillers Records, the world's oldest record shop. Cardiff has a number of markets, including the vast Victorian indoor Cardiff Market, Cardiff Central Market and the newly established Riverside Community Market, which specialises in locally produced organic produce. Several out-of-town retail parks exist, such as Newport Road, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff Gate and Cardiff Bay.


Media

Cardiff is the Welsh base for the main national broadcasters ( BBC Cymru Wales, ITV Wales and
S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...
). A locally based television station, ''Made in Cardiff'', is also based in the city centre. Major filming studios in Cardiff include the BBC's Roath Lock Studios and Pinewood Studios Wales. Several contemporary television programmes and films are filmed in and/or set in Cardiff such as ''Casualty (TV series), Casualty'', ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'', '' Torchwood'', ''Merlin (TV series), Merlin'', ''Class (2016 TV series), Class'', ''The Valleys (TV series), The Valleys'', ''Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series), Upstairs Downstairs'', ''A Discovery of Witches (TV series), A Discovery of Witches'', ''His Dark Materials (TV series), His Dark Materials'', ''Being Human (British TV series), Being Human'', ''The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series), The Story of Tracy Beaker'', ''Wizards vs Aliens'', ''Sex Education (TV series), Sex Education'' and '' Sherlock''. The main local newspaper is the ''South Wales Echo''; the national paper is the ''Western Mail (Wales), Western Mail''. Both are based in Park Street in the city centre. ''Capital Times'', ''Echo Extra'' and the South Wales edition of ''Metro (Associated Metro Limited), Metro'' are also based and distributed in the city. There are several magazines, including ''Primary Times'' and a monthly ''papur bro'', and a Welsh-language community newsletter called ''Y Dinesydd'' (The Citizen). Radio stations serving the city and based in Cardiff include 97.4 & 103.2 Capital FM South Wales, Capital South Wales, Heart South Wales, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Nation Radio Wales, Radio Cardiff, Smooth Wales and Xpress Radio. The Principality Stadium was one of the first six British landmarks to be fully mapped on Google street view, Google Street View as a 360-degree virtual tour.


Sport

Cardiff hosts many high-profile sporting events at local, national and international level and in recognition of the city's commitment to sport for all was awarded the title of European Capital of Sport 2014. Organised sports have been held in the city since the early 19th century. national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the Countries of the United Kingdom, country's Governing bodies of sports in Wales, sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top quality venues have attracted world-famous sports events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales. In 2008/09, 61% of Cardiff residents regularly participated in sport and active recreation, the highest percentage in ll 22 local authorities in Wales. Rugby union fans around the world have long been familiar with the old National Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park, and its successor the Principality Stadium, which hosted the FA Cup for six years (from 2001 to 2006) it took to rebuild Wembley Stadium. In 2009, Cardiff hosted the first Australian cricket team in England in 2009, Ashes cricket test between England and Australia to be held in Wales. Cardiff hosted eight football matches of the London 2012 Olympics. Cardiff City F.C. (founded 1899 as Riverside AFC) played their home games at Ninian Park from 1910 until the end of the 2008–09 season. The club's new home is the Cardiff City Stadium, which they initially rented to the Cardiff Blues, the city's professional rugby union team, the Blues returning to the Arms Park in 2012. Cardiff City have played in the English The Football League, Football League since the 1920–21 season, climbing to Division 1 after one season. Cardiff City are the only non-English team to have won the FA Cup, beating Arsenal F.C., Arsenal in the 1927 FA Cup Final, 1927 final at Wembley Stadium (1923), Wembley Stadium. They were runners up to Portsmouth F.C., Portsmouth in the 2008 FA Cup Final, 2008 final, losing 1–0 at the new Wembley Stadium. In the 2013/14 and 2018/19 seasons Cardiff City played in the English Premier League. Cardiff Metropolitan University F.C. of the Athletic Union of Cardiff Metropolitan University, based in Cyncoed, play in the Cymru Premier, having been promoted from Welsh League Division One in 2016. They were winners of the Welsh League Cup for the 2018–19 season. Cardiff has numerous smaller clubs including Bridgend Street A.F.C., Caerau (Ely) A.F.C., Cardiff Corinthians F.C., Cardiff Grange Harlequins A.F.C., and Ely Rangers A.F.C., which all play in the Welsh football league system. In addition to men's football teams Cardiff City Ladies F.C., Cardiff City Ladies of the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division are based in the city. Teams in the Welsh Premier Women's Football League are Cardiff Met. Ladies F.C., Cardiff Met. Ladies, Cyncoed Ladies F.C., Cyncoed Ladies and Cardiff City F.C. (women), Cardiff City. During the 1990s, London-based football club Wimbledon FC expressed interest in relocating to Cardiff, having been without a home of their own since exiting Plough Lane (1912–98), Plough Lane stadium in 1991 and sharing with Crystal Palace FC at Selhurst Park. The relocation of the club to Cardiff did not happen; in 2003, the club moved to Milton Keynes and a year later rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons FC, Milton Keynes Dons. Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), in central Cardiff, is among the world's most famous venues—being the scene of three Welsh Grand Slam (rugby union), Grand Slams in the 1970s (1971 Five Nations Championship, 1971, 1976 Five Nations Championship, 1976 and 1978 Five Nations Championship, 1978) and six Six Nations Championship, Five Nations titles in nine years—and was the venue for Wales' games in the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The Arms Park has a sporting history dating back to at least the 1850s, when Cardiff Cricket Club (formed 1819) relocated to the site. The ground was donated to Cardiff CC in 1867 by the Marquess of Bute. Cardiff Cricket Club shared the ground with Cardiff Rugby Football Club (founded 1876) — forming Cardiff Athletic Club between them — until 1966, when the cricket section moved to Sophia Gardens. Cardiff Athletic Club and the Welsh Rugby Union established two stadia on the site—Cardiff RFC played at their stadium at the northern end of the site, and the Wales national rugby union team played international matches at the National Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park, which opened in 1970. The National Stadium was replaced by the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm) in 1999—in time for the 1999 Rugby World Cup—and is home stadium to the Wales national rugby union team, Wales national rugby and Wales national football team, football teams for international matches. In addition to Wales' Six Nations Championship and other international games, the Principality Stadium held four matches in the 2007 Rugby World Cup and six FA Cup finals (from the 2001–02 FA Cup, 2001–02 to 2005–06 FA Cup, 2005–06 seasons) while Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt. Cardiff Cricket Club was formed in 1819 and Glamorgan CCC, Glamorgan County Cricket Club has competed as a first-class county since 1921. Its headquarters and ground is the SWALEC Stadium, Sophia Gardens, since moving from Cardiff Arms Park in 1966. The Sophia Gardens stadium underwent multimillion-pound improvements since being selected to host the first England cricket team, "England" v Australia national cricket team, Australia Test cricket, Test match of the Australian cricket team in England in 2009, 2009 Ashes series. The Hundred (cricket), The Hundred franchise team Welsh Fire is also based at the stadium. Cardiff has a long association with boxing, from Jim Driscoll, 'Peerless' Jim Driscoll — born in Cardiff in 1880 — to more recent, high-profile fights staged in the city. These include the World Boxing Council, WBC Lennox Lewis vs. Frank Bruno heavyweight championship fight at the Arms Park in 1993, and many of Joe Calzaghe's fights, between 2003 and 2007. Cardiff's professional ice hockey team, the Cardiff Devils, plays in the 3,000-seat Ice Arena Wales in the Cardiff International Sports Village. It plays in the 12-team professional Elite Ice Hockey League. Founded in 1986, it was one of the most successful British teams in the 1990s. Cardiff's only American-flag football team is the Hurricanes. It won the British Championship in 2014 after falling short by 2 points in a quarter-final to eventual winners, the London Rebels, the previous year. It is based at Roath Recreational Ground. The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, 1958 Commonwealth Games were hosted by Cardiff. These involved 1,130 athletes from 35 national teams competing in 94 events. One of the venues for those Games—The Wales Empire Swimming Pool—was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Principality Stadium. The GBP32m
Cardiff International Pool Cardiff International Pool is an Olympic-sized swimming pool built as a public-private funded project; with a partnership between Cardiff Council (land owner), OLLC which is a partnership between Orion Land & Leisure and Explore Investments (de ...
in
Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
, opened to the public on 12 January 2008 — part of the GBP1bn International Sports Village (ISV) — is the only Olympic-standard swimming pool in Wales. When complete, the ISV complex will provide Olympic standard facilities for sports including boxing and fencing, gymnastics, judo, white water events (including Whitewater canoeing, canoeing and Whitewater kayaking, kayaking) and wrestling as well as a Indoor skiing, snow dome with real snow for skiing and snowboarding, an Cardiff Arena, arena for public ice skating and ice hockey and a hotel. Some of the sports facilities at the ISV were to be used as training venues for the London 2012 Olympics. The Principality Stadium hosts motor-sport events such as the World Rally Championship, as part of Wales Rally GB. The first indoor special stages of the World Rally Championship were held at the Principality Stadium in September 2005 and have been an annual event since. The Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain, British Speedway Grand Prix, one of the World Championship events, is held at the Millennium Stadium. While the track—a temporary, purpose built, shale oval—is not universally loved, the venue is considered the best of the World Championship's 11 rounds. The Cardiff International Sports Stadium, opened 19 January 2009, replacing the Cardiff Athletics Stadium, demolished to make way for the Cardiff City Stadium. It has a 4,953 capacity as a multi sport/special event venue, offering certificated international track and field athletics facilities, including an international standard external throws area. The stadium houses the Headquarters of Welsh Athletics, the sport's governing body for Wales. The city's indoor track and field athletics sports venue is the National Indoor Athletics Centre, an international athletics and multi sports centre at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Campus, Cyncoed.


Notable people

Many notable people have hailed from Cardiff, ranging from historical figures such as the 12th-century Welsh leader Ifor Bach to more recent figures such as Roald Dahl, Ken Follett, Griff Rhys Jones, Catrin Dafydd, and the former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones. The notable actors include Ioan Gruffudd (notable film performances such as Lancelot in ''King Arthur (2004 film), King Arthur'' (2004), Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) in ''Fantastic 4 (2005 film), Fantastic 4'' (2005) and its sequel ''Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer'' (2007)) and Iwan Rheon. Also notable is Siân Grigg, BAFTA winner and Oscar nominated Hollywood make-up artist. In particular, the city has been the birthplace of sports stars such as Tanni Grey-Thompson and Colin Jackson, as well as many Premier League, The Football League, Football League and international footballers, such as Craig Bellamy, Gareth Bale, Ryan Giggs, Joe Ledley, and former managers of the Wales national football team Terry Yorath and John Toshack. International rugby league players from Cardiff include Frank Whitcombe, Billy Boston, David Willicombe and Colin Dixon. International rugby union players include Sam Warburton, Jamie Roberts, Jamie Robinson (rugby player), Jamie Robinson, Nicky Robinson (rugby player), Nicky Robinson, Rhys Patchell, and baseball internationals include George Whitcombe and Ted Peterson. Saint Teilo (c. 500 – 9 February c. 560) is the patron saint of Cardiff. He was a British Christian monk, bishop, and founder of monasteries and churches. Reputed to be a cousin, friend, and disciple of Saint David, he was Bishop of Llandaff and founder of the first church at Llandaff Cathedral, where his tomb is. His Saint's Day is 9 February. Cardiff is also well known for its musicians. Ivor Novello inspired the Ivor Novello Awards. Idloes Owen, founder of the Welsh National Opera, lived in Llandaff. Dame Shirley Bassey was born and raised in Cardiff. Charlotte Church is famous as a crossover classical/pop singer. Shakin' Stevens was one of the top-selling male artists in the UK during the 1980s. Tigertailz, a popular glam metal act in the 1980s, also hailed from Cardiff. A number of Cardiff-based bands, such as Catatonia (band), Catatonia and Super Furry Animals, were popular in the 1990s.


Twinning

*Luhansk, Ukraine *Hordaland, Hordaland county, Norway *Sucre, Bolivia *Nantes, France *Stuttgart, Germany *Xiamen, China *Lima, Peru


Namesake

Cardiff-by-the-Sea in Encinitas, California was named after Cardiff in Wales.


Diplomatic presence

A total of 28 countries have a diplomatic presence in Cardiff. Many of these, such as Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Thailand and the Czech Republic, are represented by consul (representative), honorary consulates. The United States Embassy to the UK operates a satellite office.


Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Cardiff; they are listed with the date that they received the honour.


Individuals


Military units

*The Welch Regiment: 10 June 1944 *The Welsh Guards: 27 April 1957 *The Royal Regiment of Wales: 11 June 1969 *The Royal Welch Fusiliers: 7 November 1973 *The 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards: 29 July 1985 *HMS Cardiff (D108), HMS Cardiff, Royal Navy, RN: 3 February 1988 *The Merchant Navy (United Kingdom), Merchant Navy Association (Wales): 3 September 2001 *203 (Welsh) Field Hospital Army Reserve (United Kingdom), (Volunteers) Royal Army Medical Corps, RAMC: 21 April 2014 *HMS Dragon (D35), HMS Dragon, Royal Navy, RN: 18 May 2014


See also

*Cardiff city centre *Cardiff music scene *List of cultural venues in Cardiff *List of parliamentary constituencies in South Glamorgan *List of places in Cardiff *List of places of worship in Cardiff *List of streets and squares in Cardiff *
Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...


References


External links


Cardiff Council siteVisit CardiffCardiff Records
the full text of the edition of historical records for Cardiff, edited by J. H. Matthews (1898–1905). Part of British History Online. {{Authority control Cardiff, Cardiff Capital cities in the United Kingdom Cities in Wales Populated coastal places in Wales Counties of Wales Glamorgan Port cities and towns in Wales Principal areas of Wales County towns in Wales Rally GB 50s establishments Populated places established in the 1st century