St Fagans National Museum of History (/ˈfæɡənz/ FAG-ənz; Welsh: Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.^[2]

Quick Facts Former name, Established ...

St Fagans National
Museum of History

Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru
The administration offices in the background
Location in Cardiff, Wales
Former name	St Fagans National History Museum
Established	1948
Location	St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
Coordinates	51.4869°N 3.2725°W / 51.4869; -3.2725
Visitors	610,155 (2010)[1] * Ranked 21st in the UK
Website	museum.wales/stfagans

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It consists of more than forty re-erected buildings from various locations in Wales, and is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house.^[3] In 2011 Which? magazine named the museum the United Kingdom's favourite visitor attraction.^[4]

A six-year, £30-million revamp was completed in 2018 and the museum was named the Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2019.^[5]

The museum was founded in 1946 following the donation of the castle and lands by the Earl of Plymouth.^[6] It opened its doors to the public in 1948, under the name of the Welsh Folk Museum. The museum's name in Welsh (also meaning "Welsh Folk Museum") has remained unchanged since that date, whereas the English title was revised to Museum of Welsh Life, thereafter St Fagans National History Museum, and again to its current title.^[2][7]

The brainchild of Iorwerth Peate, the museum was modelled on Skansen, the outdoor museum of vernacular Swedish architecture in Stockholm. Most structures re-erected in Skansen were built of wood and are thus easily taken apart and reassembled, but a comparable museum in Wales was going to be more ambitious, as much of the vernacular architecture of Wales is made of masonry.^[3][6]

The museum comprises more than forty buildings representing the architecture of Wales,^[6] including a nonconformist chapel (in this case, Unitarian),^[14] a village schoolhouse, a toll road tollbooth (below), a cockpit (below), a pigsty (below), and a tannery (below).^[7]

The museum holds displays of traditional crafts, with a working blacksmith forge, a pottery, a weaver, a miller, and a clog maker. It also includes two working water mills: one flour mill and one wool mill. Part of the site includes a small working farm which concentrates on preserving local Welsh native breeds of livestock. Produce from the museum's bakery and flour mill is available for sale.^[3]

The medieval parish church of Saint Teilo, formerly at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont in west Glamorgan (restored to its pre-Reformation state), was opened in October 2007 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and still serves as a place of worship for Christmas, Easter, and Harvest Thanksgiving.^[3] A Tudor merchant's house from Haverfordwest was opened in 2012.^[15] Future plans include the relocation of the historic Vulcan public house from Newtown in Cardiff.^[16]

Although the museum was intended to preserve aspects of Welsh rural life, it now includes several buildings that depict the industrial working life that succeeded it, that being almost extinct in Wales. There is a row of workers' cottages, depicting furnishing from 1800 to 1985, from Rhyd-y-car near Merthyr Tydfil (below), as well as the pristine Oakdale Workmen's Institute. A post-war prefabricated bungalow (below) represents later domestic lifestyles.^[17]

From 1996 to 2012, the museum hosted the Everyman Summer Theatre Festival when it re-located from Dyffryn Gardens. This festival, which includes a Shakespeare play, a musical, and a children's show, has become part of the Welsh theatrical calendar since its founding at Dyffryn in 1983.^[18][19]

Scenes from the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" were filmed at the museum.^[20][21][22]

Based on archaeological findings, a reconstruction of Llys Rhosyr, a thirteenth-century court of the princes of Gwynedd,^[23][24] was completed and opened to the public in October 2018. Called Llys Llewelyn ('Llewelyn's Court'), it was opened with the intention that schoolchildren would be able to stay in the buildings overnight, from spring 2019.^[25]

The Gweithdy ('Workshop'), a sustainable building designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, was first opened in July 2017;^[26] a café was later added. The new gallery was opened in October 2018, housing improved facilities for visitors while supporting the study of collections and hosting demonstrations and workshops by traditional craftsmen.^[8]

• The Vulcan Hotel will be rebuilt on the site. Originally located in Adam Street, Cardiff, the hotel first opened in 1853. It closed in May 2012 and was dismantled in 2013 to be placed in storage. It is hoped to restore the building as it would have looked in 1915.^[29]
• The rebuilding of the Victorian police station from Taff's Well, Rhondda Cynon Taf.^[30]
• In 2012 it was announced that Raglan railway station would be rebuilt at the museum.^[31]