Description : Cardiff is the capital city of Wales and a county. Officially known as the City and County of Cardiff, it is the United Kingdom's eleventh-largest city and the main commercial centre of Wales. Cardiff is the base for the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), most national cultural institutions and the Welsh media. At the 2011 census, the unitary authority area population was estimated to be 346,090, and the wider urban area 479,000. In 2011, Cardiff was sixth in the world in the National Geographic magazine's list of alternative tourist destinations. Cardiff is the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. Archaeological evidence from sites in and around Cardiff: the St Lythans burial chamber near Wenvoe, (approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) to the west of Cardiff city centre); the Tinkinswood burial chamber, near St. Nicholas (about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Cardiff city centre), the Cae'rarfau Chambered Tomb, Creigiau (about 6 miles (9.7 km) northwest of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa Long Barrow, near Coedkernew, Newport (about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Cardiff city centre), all 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 or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of the Garth (Welsh: Mynydd y Garth), within the county's northern boundary. Four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiff's present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares (13 acres). Until the Roman conquest of Britain, Cardiff was part of the territory of the Silures – a Celtic British tribe that flourished in the Iron Age – whose territory included the areas that would become known as Breconshire, Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. The 3.2-hectare (8-acre) 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. 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 about 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). The area passed through his family until the advent of the Normans in the 11th century. In 1081 William I, King of England, 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, and the architect William Burges. Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in the wall facings. A town grew up in the shadow of the castle, made up primarily of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages; a relatively normal size for a Welsh town in this period. It was the centre of the Norman Marcher Lordship of Glamorgan, and 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 most notable towns in England and continued to be very much contained within its walls, which were begun as a wooden palisade in the early 12th century. It was of sufficient size and importance to be awarded a series of charters, notably in 1331 by 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.
See on map »