Devoted mainly to art and natural history, this grand neoclassical building is the centrepiece of several institutions countrywide that together form the Welsh National Museum. It's among Britain's best museums; devote at least three hours to doing it justice. Boasting one of the world's most significant impressionist and post-impressionist collections, the main gallery rooms exhibit treasures such as Monet's Water Lilies, alongside his scenes of London, Rouen and Venice; a cast of Rodin's The Kiss; and van Gogh's anguished Rain, Auvers.
Then there are the Welsh scenes by Sisley (the artist was married in Cardiff!) and Renoir's shimmering La Parisienne. Many pieces were bequeathed to the museum in the 1950s and 1960s by the Davies sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret, granddaughters of 19th-century coal and shipping magnate David Davies. These include their seven paintings by British master JMW Turner, dismissed as fakes in the 1950s but subsequently reappraised as genuine.
Welsh artists, such as Gwen and Augustus John, Richard Wilson, Margaret Lindsay Williams and Ceri Richards, are well represented, along with famous names from across the border, such as William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Add to that the likes of Van Dyck, Poussin, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Degas and Picasso, and you've got some seriously impressive works.
The equally absorbing Evolution of Wales exhibit scoots onlookers through 4600 million years of geological history, its rollicking multimedia display placing Wales into a global context. Films of volcanic eruptions and aerial footage of the Welsh landscape explain how its scenery was formed, while model dinosaurs and woolly mammoths help keep the kids interested. Even more whizz-bang is Mission: Planet Earth, a 15-minute virtual-reality experience (£10) at the beginning of the Evolution section that children will especially love.
The natural-history displays range from brightly colored insects to the 9m-long skeleton of a humpback whale that washed up near Aberthaw in 1982. The world's largest leatherback turtle (914kg), found on Harlech beach, is also here, suspended on wires from the ceiling.
One of the large upstairs galleries is devoted to Welsh ceramics, while others are set aside for temporary exhibitions. A new one-way system leads visitors throughout. Book online before visiting.
On-site parking, behind the museum, costs £6.50; you'll need to purchase an exit token from the gift shop.
