Welcome to Cardiff and its wealth of fascinating church buildings!

On the edge of the city is the Cathedral of Llandaff, the site of Christian worship since the 6th century, is a ‘must see’ for any visitor.

Cardiff itself had to wait for the Normans to build its first church, the Priory of St Mary, long since washed away by the flooding river.

The 12th century chapel of St John, now the city centre parish church, is Cardiff’s oldest extant building, apart from the Castle. Cardiff had to wait for the coming of the Industrial Revolution to add to its quota of churches. In the early 19th century, Churches and chapels sprang up all over the town, the earlier ones in classical or Romanesque style, and followed later by the new fashion of Victorian Gothic.

The 2nd Marquess of Bute gave land and money for the new St Mary’s, resurrecting the town’s original church, and gracing his new dockland creation of Butetown. Local architect John Prichard, restorer of Llandaff Cathedral, built or rebuilt grand state-of-the-art churches in the swelling suburbs of Canton and Roath.

Nonconformity had come to Cardiff in the 17th century with an Anglican Vicar dismissed by the Bishop for his puritanical views. His sympathisers later formed a congregation and, in 1696, built their own chapel, Trinity in Womanby St. The fine 1865 Tabernacl Welsh Baptist Church can be found in The Hayes.

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