As a proud and passionate country we like to show off our history, that’s why our national museums are FREE to visit.
Our capital city museum is home to the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings outside Paris. The collection includes Renoir's famous 'Blue Lady, La Parisienne', Rodin's 'The Kiss' and Monet's 'Water lilies'. The museum also has massive displays of natural history, science and archaeology, all under one roof.
This is one of Europe's biggest open-air museums. And it’s alive. Amongst the 40 re-erected historical buildings you’ll see craftsman demonstrating traditional skills, farming of native breeds of livestock and celebrations of welsh music and dance. The museum shows you in a real life way how the Welsh lived, worked and played.
Winner of the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year in 2005, Big Pit is a real coal mine run by real miners. Go 300 feet underground and see what life was like down the pits.
This museum is crammed full of the latest multimedia technology, making our history come alive. Interactive displays will enable you to see, hear and smell Wales through the industrial revolution. Be warned, some are not pretty.
If you’re feeling a bit crafty then visit our national wool museum in the centre of the Teifi valley. The newly refurbished museum tells the story of our historically important wool industry and you can have a go at carding, spinning and sewing your own wool too.
The National Slate Museum is a working piece of history. The story of our slate is told in Victorian workshops where most of the machinery is preserved in its original condition. Skilled craftsmen will show you how we split and dressed the slate. We’ll even let you take a piece of our history home with you.
We were the furthest outpost of the Roman Empire. But the Romans guarded Caerleon for over 200 years. Visit the only remains of a Roman Legionary barracks on view anywhere in Europe. You can even try on the armour too.