Cardiff, the capital of Wales

Cardiff, in Welsh Caerdydd, is the capital of Wales and one of the youngest capitals in Europe: it officially became one only in 1955. For centuries it was a small town around a Norman castle; in the 19th century coal from the Welsh valleys turned it within a few decades into the largest coal port in the world; today it is a compact, green and lively city, home of the Welsh Parliament, with a fairy-tale castle in the heart of the centre, a legendary stadium a stone's throw from the shops, Victorian arcades, a regenerated bay and a bilingual atmosphere unique in the UK. It is less than two hours by train from London and the ideal gateway to Wales, from the mining valleys to the mountains of the Brecon Beacons and the Gower coast.

Cardiff at a glance

With more than 360,000 inhabitants, Cardiff is the largest city in Wales and one of the fastest-growing capitals in the UK; the wider urban area, with the nearby valley towns and the coast, exceeds one and a half million people. It is the seat of the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, and of the Welsh Government, which since May 2026 has been led by Rhun ap Iorwerth, the first head of government from the nationalist party Plaid Cymru, after more than a century of Labour dominance in Welsh politics. It is also a young city, with three universities and tens of thousands of students, and has been multicultural since the days of the port, when Butetown, "Tiger Bay", was home to sailors of more than fifty nationalities.

Cardiff is a bilingual city: all signs are in English and Welsh, the Celtic language spoken by about a sixth of the people of Wales, and the number of children in Welsh-medium schools is growing fast in the capital too.

A few words of Welsh are always appreciated: croeso means "welcome" (pronounced "croy-so"), bore da is "good morning", diolch "thank you", iechyd da "cheers!" and hwyl fawr "goodbye". Welsh spelling looks impossible but is very regular: double dd is pronounced like the English th in this, w and y are often vowels, and double ll is a breathy sound found in few other languages.

The history of Cardiff

Romans, Normans and the Bute family

The name Caerdydd probably means "fort on the Taff", the river that runs through the city. The Romans built a fort here in the 1st century, and its walls have been reconstructed along the perimeter of the castle. After the Norman conquest, around 1081, a castle with a keep on an artificial mound was built, and a small market town grew up around it. For centuries Cardiff remained a town of a few thousand people, less important than other places in Wales.

Everything changed in the 19th century thanks to the Marquesses of Bute, an aristocratic Scottish family that owned the castle and much of the land in the city. The second marquess built the first great dock in 1839, and the Taff Vale Railway brought down to the sea the coal of the South Wales valleys, the world's most prized steam coal for ships and locomotives. By the early 20th century Cardiff was the world's leading coal port, and in 1904 the first million-pound cheque in history is said to have been signed at the Coal Exchange. The population rose from fewer than 2,000 in 1801 to more than 160,000 in 1901. The third Marquess of Bute, one of the richest men in the world, commissioned the architect William Burges to turn the castle into a neo-Gothic fantasy.

From the decline of the port to capital city

In the 20th century the coal crisis and the closure of the mines spelled the end of the port, and Tiger Bay became run-down. Cardiff was granted city status in 1905 and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955. After the 1997 referendum Wales gained a devolved assembly, which in 2020 was renamed the Senedd and became a full parliament with law-making powers over health, education, transport and the environment; since 2026 it has had 96 members, elected by a proportional system. Meanwhile the bay was regenerated: the barrage built in 1999 turned the tidal mudflats into a large freshwater lake, around which the new Parliament, the Wales Millennium Centre, restaurants and flats have risen.

What to see in Cardiff

Cardiff Castle

Right in the centre, Cardiff Castle sums up two thousand years of history: the reconstructed Roman walls, the Norman keep on its mound, which offers a fine view, and above all the Victorian apartments created by William Burges for the third Marquess of Bute, a riot of gilding, carved wood, stained glass, murals and medieval symbols, among the most spectacular neo-Gothic interiors in Europe. During the Second World War the walls served as an air-raid shelter for thousands of people. Behind the castle stretches Bute Park, a large park along the river Taff.

The centre: arcades and markets

Cardiff's centre is compact and largely pedestrianised. It is famous for its covered Victorian and Edwardian arcades, including the Royal Arcade of 1858, the oldest, Morgan Arcade and Castle Arcade, full of independent shops, cafés and bookshops. Cardiff Market, a covered Victorian market, is the place to taste freshly made Welsh cakes. The Civic Centre in Cathays Park, with City Hall and the National Museum in white Portland stone, is one of the finest Edwardian civic ensembles in the UK.

Museums

• National Museum Cardiff: art, archaeology and natural history, with one of the most important collections of Impressionists outside Paris, donated by the Davies sisters, with works by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne and Van Gogh. Free entry.
• St Fagans National Museum of History: on the western edge of the city, one of Europe's largest open-air museums, with more than forty historic buildings from all over Wales re-erected in the grounds of a castle: farms, a medieval church, a school, miners' cottages and craft workshops. Free and unmissable.
• Cardiff Story Museum: the history of the city, in the old library building.

Cardiff Bay

About two kilometres from the centre, Cardiff Bay is the city's new face. Here stand the Senedd, the Parliament building designed by Richard Rogers and opened in 2006, with a great undulating cedarwood roof and a debating chamber visible to the public through glass; the Wales Millennium Centre, the arts centre with a façade of slate and golden metal inscribed with lines in Welsh and English; the Pierhead Building, a Victorian building in red terracotta, and the little Norwegian Church, where the writer Roald Dahl, born in Cardiff to Norwegian parents, was baptised. Roald Dahl Plass hosts open-air events. Boat trips leave from here along the barrage to the Penarth coast.

Beyond the centre

• Llandaff, a "village" with a medieval cathedral, restored after bombing in 1941, which holds a great figure of Christ by Jacob Epstein.
• Castell Coch, the "red castle", a neo-Gothic fairy tale on a wooded hillside, another Burges creation for the Butes, a few miles north.
• Caerphilly Castle, the largest in Wales and one of the largest in Britain, with water defences and a leaning tower, about twenty minutes by train.

Sport: the city of rugby

Rugby is the national passion of Wales and Cardiff is its temple. The Principality Stadium, opened in 1999 for the Rugby World Cup, stands on the bank of the Taff right in the centre and holds more than 70,000 spectators under a retractable roof. On Six Nations match days, when Wales play England, Scotland, Ireland, France or Italy, the city fills with fans in red and the pubs ring with Welsh hymns; it is an experience to have at least once. The stadium also hosts concerts, football and boxing, and in 2017 it staged the Champions League final. Cardiff City, the only non-English club to have won the FA Cup, in 1927, play at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Culture, music and nights out

Wales is known as "the land of song", and Cardiff has a very rich musical life, from male voice choirs to the Welsh National Opera, based at the Wales Millennium Centre, and a lively live-music scene in the venues of Womanby Street. The city gave us Shirley Bassey, born in Tiger Bay, and bands such as the Super Furry Animals and the Manic Street Preachers from nearby Blackwood. The BBC makes famous series such as Doctor Who at its studios in the bay. Evenings are spent in the pubs of St Mary Street and Caroline Street, the "Chippy Lane" of fish and chip shops, and the restaurants of the bay.

Eating and drinking

Welsh flavours to try include cawl, a lamb and vegetable broth considered the national dish, Welsh rarebit, toast with a sauce of cheese, beer and mustard, Welsh cakes, griddle cakes with currants, bara brith, a fruit loaf, Welsh lamb and cheeses such as Caerphilly. Cardiff also has a lively international food scene, quality restaurants in the Pontcanna district, and Welsh breweries, such as the city's historic Brains.

Living in Cardiff

Cardiff often ranks in surveys among the British cities with the best quality of life, thanks to its manageable size, many parks, proximity to the sea and the mountains, and a lower cost of living than London and the South East. The economy is dominated by the public sector, financial services, media and the creative industries, the universities and health. The universities are Cardiff University, a Russell Group member, Cardiff Metropolitan and the University of South Wales. Wales applies some policies different from England's: free prescriptions and, since 2023, a default 20 mph speed limit (about 32 km/h) in built-up areas. For the wider picture see living in the UK, quality of life and Wales.

Practical information

• By air: little Cardiff Airport has few international flights; it is often better to fly to Bristol, linked by direct buses in about an hour and a half, or to London Heathrow.
• By train: from London Paddington to Cardiff Central in about two hours, with departures every half hour; from Bristol in under an hour.
• Getting around: the centre and the bay are walkable or served by buses; a water taxi links the centre with the bay along the Taff. Valley trains run to Caerphilly, Pontypridd and Merthyr Tydfil.
• Where to stay: the centre, near the castle and the station, or the quieter bay. On Six Nations weekends and for big concerts hotels sell out months in advance.

Day trips

• The South Wales valleys, with the Big Pit National Coal Museum at Blaenavon, a UNESCO site, where former miners take visitors 90 metres underground, and the Rhondda Heritage Park.
• Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, with mountains, waterfalls and starry skies, about an hour away.
• The Gower peninsula, the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with spectacular beaches, and the city of Swansea.
• Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley.
• Bristol and Bath, across the Bristol Channel, less than an hour and a half away.

See also Wales, the history of Wales, Welsh traditions, the administrative divisions of Wales and British cities.

Cardiff on the map

Nearby