Cardiff

Cardiff (Welsh: Caerdydd) is the capital and largest city of Wales. Wales did not have an official capital before 1955 and Cardiff is the de facto capital of Wales since that year. Located on the south coast of the country it is administered as a unitary authority. It is in the historic county of Glamorgan and has a population just under 320,000, and a further 20,000 odd people in outlying areas with Cardiff's metro population totalling 327,706 making it the 21th largest conurbation in the UK.

Situated on the narrowest part of the south Wales coastal plain, Cardiff had a crucial strategic importance in the wars between the Normans (who had occupied lowland Wales) and the Welsh who maintained their hold on the Uplands, the city remained a tiny backwater until the late C19th (of which was only granted city status at the start of the C20th) where it briefly became the world's largest coal port.