Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales is a network of seven museums across Wales, each telling different parts of the country’s story. Its flagship site is the National Museum Cardiff, set in the grand civic complex of Cathays Park. Other museums include St Fagans National Museum of History, an open-air museum preserving Welsh life, and Big Pit National Coal Museum, where visitors can descend into a real coal mine. The National Slate Museum in Llanberis and the National Wool Museum in Dre-fach Felindre focus on Wales’s industrial past. The National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon holds one of Britain’s finest collections of Roman military artefacts. The network attracts nearly two million visitors each year, making it one of Wales’s most visited attractions. St Fagans, founded in 1948, was the UK’s first open-air museum and remains Europe’s leading example of its kind. Its collections began with the 1926 ‘Welsh Bygones’ gallery and now include over 450 historic buildings. Big Pit offers underground tours led by former miners, while the National Slate Museum occupies the former Dinorwig Quarry workshops. The National Roman Legion Museum displays finds from the Isca Augusta fortress, once home to a full Roman legion. A visit to Amgueddfa Cymru offers a journey through Wales’s past and present. At St Fagans, visitors walk through re-erected farmhouses, a Victorian schoolhouse, and a 16th-century manor house. Big Pit’s mine tour takes people 90 metres underground, guided by those who once worked there. The National Museum Cardiff houses art from the 16th century to today, alongside natural history displays with six million specimens. The National Slate Museum shows how slate was split and shaped, while the National Wool Museum demonstrates traditional weaving. Each site brings history to life with objects, demonstrations, and landscapes that shaped Wales.