St Fagans
community in the west of the city of Cardiff, Wales
St Fagans ( FAG-ənz; Welsh: Sain Ffagan) is a village and community in the west of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is home to the St Fagans National History Museum.
History
The name of the area invokes Saint Fagan, according to William of Malmesbury a second-century missionary to Wales but for whom there is no reliable historical evidence.
In 1648, the Battle of St Fagans took place close by.
Description
To the south lies the village of Michaelston-super-Ely, and to the east the suburb of Fairwater. The community includes Rhydlafar to the north. St Fagans lies on the River Ely, and previously had a railway station on the South Wales Main Line, and currently there is a level crossing.
The village is home to St Fagans National Museum of History (formerly called the Welsh Folk Museum and the Museum of Welsh Life) which includes St Fagans Castle and gardens. St Mary's Church in the village dates from the 12th century, with an 18th-century tower. St Fagans Old Rectory is another important Grade II* listed building nearby.
“St Fagans” enters the record as community in the west of the city of Cardiff, Wales. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fagans, community and west can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“St Fagans” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fagans, community and west provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q390036. VIAF identifies the subject as 159626468. The Library of Congress control number is n98106123. Authority coordinates are 51.487, -3.268. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1648.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St Fagans”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St Fagans primary sources, St Fagans archive and Fagans research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St Fagans”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St Fagans” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.