St Fagans, Wales in an open-air museum

St Fagans is the national museum of history of Wales and one of the finest open-air museums in Europe. On the outskirts of Cardiff, in a large park around an Elizabethan manor house, more than fifty buildings from all over the country have been rebuilt stone by stone: farmhouses and miners' cottages, a medieval church, a school, a shop, a bakery, a mill, even the court of a Welsh prince. Walking here means crossing two thousand years of everyday Welsh life. And entry is free.

History

The museum was founded in 1948 on the initiative of Iorwerth Peate, a scholar of folk culture, inspired by the open-air museums of Scandinavia. The Earl of Plymouth gave St Fagans Castle and its grounds to the nation, and since then the curators have rescued buildings due for demolition all over Wales, dismantling them and rebuilding them here with their original materials. The museum is part of Amgueddfa Cymru, the national museums of Wales. After a major redevelopment, in 2019 it was named Museum of the Year in the United Kingdom.

What to see

The historic buildings

Among the most interesting buildings are:

• The Rhyd-y-car Cottages, six ironworkers' houses from Merthyr Tydfil, each furnished as in a different period, from 1805 to 1985: a journey through time along a single street.
• St Teilo's Church, a medieval church dismantled and rebuilt, with its walls painted in the bright colours they would have had before the Reformation.
• Llys Llywelyn, the reconstruction of a 13th-century Welsh prince's court, with its great hall and timber beams.
• The Workmen's Institute from Oakdale, the miners' cultural club, with its library and dance hall.
• Gwalia Stores, an early 20th-century general store where you can still buy old-fashioned sweets, a school, a tailor's shop, a mill and a bakery, Derwen Bakery, where Welsh bread and cakes come out of the oven.
• Bryn Eryr, an Iron Age farmstead with round houses of clay and thatch.

The castle and the gardens

St Fagans Castle is in fact an elegant late 16th-century manor house built within the walls of a medieval castle. You can visit its furnished rooms and its Italianate gardens, with terraces, carp ponds, a rose garden and orchards.

The galleries

In the main building, the Wales is... and Life is... galleries explore Welsh identity through everyday objects, costumes, tools, toys and testimonies, from ancient times to the present day. They also talk about the Welsh language, alive and widely spoken: many of the museum's craftspeople speak it with visitors.

Practical information

Entry is free; you only pay for parking. The park is large, about 40 hectares, and the buildings are spread out: comfortable shoes are a must. There are often demonstrations by craftspeople such as the blacksmith, the weaver and the potter, and seasonal events linked to traditional Welsh festivals. Up-to-date opening times are on the Amgueddfa Cymru website.

Getting there

• By bus: from central Cardiff on local buses, in about 25 minutes.
• By car: about 7 kilometres west of the city centre, near junction 33 of the M4.
• By air: Cardiff Airport is about 20 minutes away.

Nearby

• Central Cardiff, with its castle, the bay and the National Museum.
• Caerphilly Castle, one of the largest in the United Kingdom, and Castell Coch, a fairytale Gothic Revival castle.
• See also Welsh traditions and the history of Wales.

Tips

• How long: at least half a day, ideally a full day.
• When to go: spring to autumn to enjoy the park; December for the traditional festivities.
• A tip: buy a Welsh bara brith at Derwen Bakery and eat it as you stroll among the Rhyd-y-car cottages.

St Fagans on the map

Nearby