National Museum of Wales

National Museum of Wales, museums and galleries centred on the National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff, Wales, with collections and exhibitions found at eight other sites across the country. The museum depicts Welsh life, culture, and history, as well as reflecting the principality’s place in the wider, international sphere.

The National Museum and Gallery, in Cathays Park, Cardiff, is one of Britain’s finest museums and galleries, and is home to a wide range of art and science displays. The art galleries hold paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Édouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pierre Auguste Renoir. Works by Welsh painters including Augustus John, Gwen John, Ceri Richards, and Frank Brangwyn are also represented. There is also a collection of archaeological and natural history exhibits.

Other branches of the National Museum of Wales include: the Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagan’s; the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry; the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Collection; the Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis; the Turner House Gallery in Penarth; and the National Mining Museum of Wales in Blaenavon—a colliery sunk in 1880, which was closed in 1980, and is now open to the public.

The Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon stores and displays a collection of 500,000 objects from the Roman fortress of Isca (Caerleon) and its environs, as well as from the legionary base at Usk. The Segnotium Roman Museum, near Caernarfon, portrays the story of the conquest and occupation of Wales by the Romans, and displays the finds from the nearby auxiliary fort of Segontium.