City and county (pop., 2001: 305,340), capital of Wales.
It is located on the Bristol Channel in southeastern Wales. The Romans built a fort there с AD 75. The town itself was established with the arrival of the Normans in the 11th century. Its population was small into the early 19th century, but by the early 20th century Cardiff had become the largest coal-exporting port in the world. The coal trade ceased in the 1960s, but Cardiff remains the largest city and the principal commercial centre of Wales.