Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle in the city center of Cardiff, Wales. The Roman Army had built a fort at Cardiff in 55 AD, and it was occupied until 80 AD. A fourth fort was built in the mid-3rd century to hold off Saxon pirate attacks, and it was abandoned after the turn of the 5th century AD. In 1081, King William the Conqueror of England built a Norman motte-and-bailey castle in Cardiff, with the Normans using the remains of the Roman fort as the basis for the castle perimeter. Anglo-Saxon peasants settled the region around Cardiff, which was ruled by the Anglo-Norman marcher lords. The Welsh attacked Cardiff Castle in 1158 and 1183, and, in 1318, the Welsh rebel Llywelyn Bren was executed at the castle. The castle was sacked by Welsh rebels in 1321, but, by the 15th century, the Despensers had come to use Caerphilly Castle more than Cardiff Castle. In 1404, during the Glyndwr Rising, Owain Glyndwr's Welsh rebels took Cardiff and the castle. In 1423, the castle was granted to the Beauchamp family, and Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick refortified the castle from 1425 to 1439. Its military significance waned following the end of the Wars of the Roses. In 1648, during the English Civil War, Cardiff Castle was given a Parliamentarian garrison to fend off a pro-Royalist invasion by Presbyterian Scots, and it was spared the slighting that many other former Royalist castles had suffered under Oliver Cromwell. During the mid-18th century, it was turned into a Georgian mansion, leading to the demolition of several medieval buildings. The Bute family remodelled the castle into a Gothic revival style, and, during World War II, it sheltered 1,800 locals from German air raids. In 1947, the castle was given to the city of Cardiff, and it became a major tourist attraction.
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