Cardiff ( , ) is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. According to recent estimates, the population of the unitary authority area is 321,000. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 11.7 million visitors in 2006.
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Cardiff ( , ) is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. According to recent estimates, the population of the unitary authority area is 321,000. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 11.7 million visitors in 2006.
The city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan (later South Glamorgan). Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area, including Dinas Powys, Penarth and Radyr. A small town until the early 19th century, the city came to prominence as a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955. Since the 1990s Cardiff has seen significant development with a new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay which contains the new Welsh Assembly Building and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. The city centre is undergoing a major redevelopment. International sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium (rugby union and football) and SWALEC Stadium (cricket).
History
main: Timeline of Cardiff history
Origins of the name
The name Cardiff and its Welsh equivalent Caerdydd are both believed by most modern experts to derive from post-Roman Brythonic words meaning "the fort on the Taff". "Dydd" or "Diff" are both modifications of "Taff", the river on which Cardiff Castle stands, with the T mutating to D in Welsh. According to Professor Hywel Wyn Owen, a leading modern authority on toponymy, the Welsh pronunciation of "Caerdyff" as "Caerdydd" shows the colloquial alternation of Welsh "-f" and "-dd".Hywel Wyn Owen, The Place-names of Wales, 1998, ISBN 0-7083-1458-9
In the past, antiquarians such as William Camden suggested that the name Cardiff might derive from the name "Caer-Didi" ("the Fort of Didius") given in honour of Aulus Didius Gallus, governor of a nearby province at the time when the Romans established a fort at Cardiff. Although some websites repeat this theory as fact, it is disputed by modern scholars on linguistic grounds, with Professor Gwynedd Pierce of Cardiff University recently describing it as "rubbish".
Roman period to the Middle Ages
The history of what is now Cardiff began with a Roman fort on the site, built in 75 AD. As Roman rule in Britannia ended near the start of the 5th century the fort was abandoned. image:John Speed's map of Cardiff 1610.jpg In 1091 Robert Fitzhamon 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.
