Домашнее задание 23.11.2021

Cardiff (Welsh: Caerdydd) is the capital of Wales. It used to be an industrial city, but is now a lively and modern capital city and a tourism hot spot. The city is friendly to pedestrians, and summer is by far the best time to visit, with large festivals, and outdoor dining and drinking.

The city centre has been intensely developed in the 21st century, and is now considered to be one of the top ten shopping destinations in the United Kingdom. Cardiff is a green city, and this is complemented by Bute Park which sits in the heart of the city. It has a reputation as a city of castles, having 5 of them within its surroundings. The city's core population stands at roughly 341,000, with 861,000 living in the larger urban area.

Understand[edit]

Cardiff is on the south coast of the south Wales plain, with a shoreline on the Bristol Channel. It lies at the mouth of three rivers: the Taff, the Ely and the Rhymney, with the Taff flowing through the city centre and all three reaching the sea at Cardiff Bay. Cardiff is quite a flat city, a characteristic that helped it become one of the world's leading ports for the transport of coal from the rugged south Wales Valleys.

Around 12% of the residents of Cardiff speak some Welsh, and all public signs in the city are in both Welsh and English. However, as elsewhere in Wales, English is universally understood.

City[edit]

Cardiff's city centre is in the southern portion of the city just north of Cardiff Bay. It is traditionally centred at the castle, bounded to the north by the historic civic centre, large Bute park arboretum and university buildings, by the River Taff to the west, and by the Valleys and National rail lines to the east and south respectively. Growth is pushing the city centre beyond these boundaries, especially in regards to commercial office and residential provision. In particular, the area south of the original city centre towards and including Cardiff Bay has been almost completely redeveloped.

History[edit]

Cardiff's history follows its castle, which has been occupied since the Romans created a fort on the river Taff over 2,000 years ago. The name 'Cardiff' may have come from 'Caer' = fort, on the 'Taff'.) The fort's original walls can still be seen highlighted around the base of Cardiff Castle's walls. In Medieval times the castle grew, and a small town spread from its south gate; the Medieval street pattern can still be seen around High Street. In the 15th century the town was destroyed by the last great Welsh prince, Owain Glyndwr. Successive owners fortified the castle and the town timidly grew until the Industrial Revolution, when the 2nd Marquess of Bute built the Glamorganshire Canal to transport coal from the Welsh valleys through Cardiff's docks.

Combined with the later arrival of the railways, Cardiff's population exploded and the docks grew to become the largest coal exporting port in the world. At its peak, the price of the world's coal was determined at Cardiff's Coal Exchange and the first ever £1,000,000 cheque was written here in 1901 (equivalent to £124,000,000 in 2020). Cardiff was the third largest port of the British Empire, resulting in Edward VII granting Cardiff city status in 1905. With the rise of the city's fortunes, the Marquis of Bute transformed Cardiff castle into a fairytale gothic palace. He also donated land to build the civic centre which contains the City Hall, National Museum, university and government buildings, all built in elaborate neo-classical Baroque styles out of white Portland stone.

The Marquis also commissioned the architect William Burges to design many public and residential buildings in a distinctive Gothic style - many are still visible in the city centre and the inner suburbs. Wales did not have a de jure capital until 1955, when Cardiff was chosen as the largest city. However, with the post-War decline of coal, the city's docks became increasingly abandoned, and in the 1990s the city's transformation began with the building of a barrage to stop the world's second largest tidal range from revealing dirty mud flats, and creating what is today Europe's largest waterfront regeneration project.

The Bay today is a mixture of apartments, sport, leisure and culture and its success has also seen a rejuvenation of the city centre, where large scale pedestrianisation and the massive St David's redevelopment in 2009 have created a vibrant city, combining the best of the old, sitting close to modern architecture and amenities. As for the Castle, it was handed over to the people of Cardiff, and is now a major tourist, corporate and cultural attraction, an indication of where the city's future lies.