Cardiff, the capital of Wales, has had people living there since 6,000 years before the current age. Today Cardiff – Vale of Glamorgan has become a cosmopolitan European urban community that still honors its ancient roots.

The city has been home to many popular UK sports stars. Among them have been Colin Jackson and Tanni Grey-Thompson, as well as many Premier League, Football League and international football players. The latter have included Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur), Terry Yorath (Leeds United), Craig Bellamy (Manchester City), and the Wales national football team manager John Toshack (Liverpool).

Today Cardiff serves as the capital of Wales, its largest city and the seat of government, industry and culture. The last shouldn’t be unexpected, as the city boasts among its native sons such luminaries as Ivor Novello, the 20th century musical star recalled in the movie “Gosford Park”; popular children’s author Roald Dahl, for whom a street, Roald Dahl Plass, is named; and author and screenwriter Terry Nation, who created the Daleks, the perennial robotic nemeses of TV’s favorite Time Lord, Dr. Who.

No doubt may a sport has been pursued in and around Cardiff’s locale during the nearly 8,000 years that humans have been living in its environs, according to archaeological findings.

Significant development has come to Cardiff over the past decade, such as a new waterfront area that’s home to the the Millennium Center arts complex and a new government hall for the Welsh Assembly. International sporting venues also are adding to the city’s appeal to visits with the construction of the SWALEC Stadium for playing cricket and the Millennium Stadium for games of rugby union and football. These improvements and Cardiff’s role as host of several major international sport events earned the city the designation of the European City Of Sport in 2009.

Cardiff also is gaining fame as an arts and media mecca. It’s the birthplace of popular children’s author Roald Dahl, who has been honored with a street named after him, the Roald Dahl Plass next to the Wales Millennium Center. The late screenwriter and author Terry Nation, who created the robotic arch-villains the Daleks for the long-running science fiction program “Dr. Who, ” is also a son of Cardiff.

For many these days, however, Cardiff’s emergence as a media center is the biggest draw. In addition to studios for ITV Walles, S4C and BBC Wales, Cardiff is now home to more than 600 independent TV and film production companies that employ nearly 6,000 workers. This enormous growth in the media industry brings an estimated 350 million British pounds into the local economy annually.

The city also has become a mecca for independent TV production with more than 600 companies employing some 6,000 employees generating an annual gross revenue for the region of 350 million. Parts of the popular UK television shows “Gavin and Stacey, ” “Tracy Beaker, ” “The Worst Witch, ” and “Merlin, ” among others, are filmed around Cardiff.

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