The Museum of Welsh
Life, which stands on the grounds of St. Fagan’s
Castle, is said to be one of Europe’s foremost open air
museums. The Museum shows how the people of Wales
lived, worked and spent their leisure time over the last five hundred years.
The ground floor of the castle is also open to visitors.
The 100-acre museum now has over thirty original buildings, moved there from
various parts of Wales
and re-erected to show how the people of Wales
lived at various times in history. The buildings include a school, a chapel and
a splendid Workmen's Institute as well as several workshops where craftsmen,
such as the blacksmith and the cooper, demonstrate their skills to the public.
There are also large indoor galleries displaying exhibitions of costume, daily
life and farming implements. Traditional festivals and customs and music and
dance events are staged throughout the year. Local breeds of livestock are
available to be seen in the fields and farmyards, and regular demonstrations of
farming tasks take place daily.
Cardiff National
Museum and Gallery
This is an all in one museum that shows not only art treasures from Wales’
past, but also exhibits displaying the land’s natural history. The archeology
section shows artifacts ranging from mammoth teeth to medieval Celtic coins and
cannon balls, as well as exhibits from the Roman and Viking eras. The National
Gallery section had a fine collection of Welsh, English, and European art,
including examples of ceramics and porcelain. There is also a good science
section, with rock and dinosaur fossil samples on display.