Cardiff Castle and the Marquesses of Bute

Cardiff Castle is a major Roman, Norman and medieval survival, but what sets it apart is its extraordinary redevelopment during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, culminating in the fairytale Gothic Revival extravagances we see today. In this sumptuous illustrated study of the past 250 years of its history, the castle's curator, Matthew Williams, celebrates this reinvention, which was led by several generations of the wealthy Bute family. Eighteenth-century building and landscape work by the renowned landscape designer 'Capability' Brown and the architect Henry Holland was followed by William Burges' fantastical transformation in the nineteenth century, together creating what is now one of the most iconic and popular buildings in Wales.