Welsh heritage

During our four-day stay in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, we found many easy-to-notice signs of Wales’ heritage.

We discovered Welsh food and many Welsh red dragons everywhere,

Castle Arcade

Click on the picture for Castle Arcade

and also many signs in the Welsh language.

Welsh Language Guide

Excerpt from Go Brittania Travel Guide

"The language of Wales, more properly called Cymraeg in preference to Welsh (A Germanic word denoting "foreigner"), belongs to a branch of Celtic, an Indo-European language. The Welsh themselves are descendants of the Galatians, to whom Paul wrote his famous letter. Their language is a distant cousin to Irish and Scots Gaelic and a close brother to Breton. Welsh is still used by about half a million people within Wales and possibly another few hundred thousand in England and other areas overseas."

At Radyr Comprehensive School Welsh is taught too:

click on Curriculum and Welsh Baccalaureate

During the guided tour by the school’s pupils, we found these signs and posters:

logo website

Radyr Comprehensive

Poster at Radyr

schoolbus Radyr

click for more details on the schoolbus

In Cardiff city centre:

At Cardiff Bay

we found several inscriptions on sculptures:

 from Pit to Port, by John Clinch

statue miner Cardiff Bay, English

statue miner Cardiff Bay, Welsh

sculpture Cardiff Bay

Ivor Novello, composer and film actor

"In this city was born a king, who gave his people dreams and songs to sing"

details inscriptions sculpture

and on the main buildings:

Pierhead, Cardiff Bay

By fire and water

mosaic inside Pierhead

By fire and water

The Senedd

SENEDD, Welsh National Assembly

Cardiff Bay

English: Legislature, Parliament or Senate; Welsh pronunciation: [ˈsɛnɛð]), also known as the National Assembly building

Calligraphy Wales Millennium Centre

Inscribed on the front of the dome, above the main entrance, are two poetic lines, written by Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis.

The Welsh version is Creu Gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen, which means "Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration".

The English is In These Stones Horizons Sing.

Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr O Ffwrnais Awen

Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr O Ffwrnais Awen

by Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis

Gwyneth Lewis said of the inscription:

"I wanted the words to reflect the architecture of the building. Its copper dome reminded me of the furnaces from Wales’s industrial heritage and also Ceridwen’s cauldron, from which the early poet Taliesin received his inspiration (’awen’). Awen suggests both poetic inspiration and the general creative vision by which people and societies form their aspirations."—Gwyneth Lewis

In These Stones Horizons Sing

In These Stones Horizons Sing

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay

Gwyneth Lewis said of the inscription:

"It was important to me that the English words on the building should not simply be a translation of the Welsh, that they should have their own message. The strata of the slate frontage of the Wales Millennium Centre reminded me of the horizons just beyond Penarth Head. The sea has, traditionally, been for Cardiff the means by which the Welsh export their best to the world and the route by which the world comes to Cardiff. The stones inside the theatre literally sing with opera, musicals and orchestral music, and I wanted to convey the sense of an international space created by the art of music." —Gwyneth Lewis

During the Cardiff Bay Barrage tour:

fishpass, Cardiff Bay barrage