One of the ten most popular attractions in the United Kingdom, the St. Fagans National History Museum has a triple claim to fame as it is also one of the biggest and most fascinating open-air museums in Europe, and the most popular heritage attraction in Wales. The museum is housed in the sprawling gardens and grounds of the 16th century Elizabethan manor house known as St. Fagans castle in west Cardiff, South Wale. The museum is devoted to preserving and showcasing the lifestyle, art and culture of the old Welsh people, from pre-historic Celts to the present-day surviving traditions, and falls under the purview of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.
Founded by Iorwerth Peate, the museum was first opened in 1946, following the donation of the castle and grounds by the Earl of Plymouth. It was known simply as the Welsh Folk Museum in this incarnation; later it was changed to the Museum of Welsh Life before finally adopting the moniker it uses today, although its Welsh title has remained unchanged.
The museum was inspired by the outdoor museum of Skansen, which is a showcase of Stockholms vernacular architecture. This is the type of architecture that the common people use to build their functional buildings, using local resources and contemporary building design, which makes these constructions reflective of their immediate historical, environmental and cultural contexts.
While the wooden constructs and dwellings of Skansen easily lent themselves to deconstruction and disassembly, replicating the same process in Wales posed a problem, as most of the regional architecture were made of stone and brick masonry.
However, the architects of the museum have risen amply to the challenge, as can be seen by the myriad of buildings that have been re-erected all over the 100 acres of St. Fagans extensive parkland. Over forty dwellings now appear within its architectural repertoire, representing diverse time periods and eras in Welsh history. The only buildings which have been created from scratch is the St Fagans castle itself, the House of the Future and the Celtic village; all others have been transported from the nether reaches of Wales and painstakingly reassembled on the museum grounds. The latest of these is a parish church of St Teilo of the medieval period, which has been bought here from west Glamorgan, showcasing the designs and beliefs of pre-Reformation Wales.
Preserving the Welsh rural life and its traditional industry is also one of the museums objectives, even though this industrial lifestyle is almost extinct in the region. As such, the museums fully-functional farm, blacksmiths forge and two working mills (a flour mill and wool mill) take centre stage, as do the Workmens Institute. The farm produce is sold to tourists and features native breeds of Welsh livestock. Traditional arts and crafts are also displayed in workshops, while the Welsh language is used by the craftsman in daily conversation, making the cultural experience ever more authentic. These conversations are usually interpreted for tourists by interpreters. The museum also has special galleries featuring costumes and farming implements that saw common usage in Welsh life in bygone times
The Everyman Summer Theatre Festival, one of the red-letter events of the Welsh theatrical calendar, has been hosted by the St. Fagans Museum annually since 1996. This festival is a great draw for the crowds and stages Shakespeare plays, English musicals and childrens shows among a list of other performances.
However, even more than this much-anticipated celebration of performing art, St. Fagans Museum has gained a certain national notoriety for its legends and ghosts. Reports of spectres and paranormal phenomena within the age-old dwellings abound, enhancing the intrigue of its environs so much that the museum now offers its visitors ghost tours, in order to further explore the sites of the alleged hauntings.
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