City Guide

With a population of about 9,000, Llandaff must be one of Britain's smallest cities, though it has been incorporated into Cardiff since 1922.

The cathedral which gives it the city title was established in the 12th century, on a site of Christian worship dating back to the 6th century.

In 1941 an enemy parachute mine got snagged on the cathedral spire and exploded, destroying the roof and much of the interior. This made Llandaff the second-worst damaged British cathedral, after Coventry. Its restoration, not completed until 1960, included the large Christ in Majestas created by the famous sculptor Jacob Epstein.

Llandaff Cathedral sits in a hollow below the level of the village, and local people used to say that the cathedral had saved them from destruction. The snagging of the parachute mine made it explode down in the hollow, devastating the cathedral but without causing casualties in the nearby houses.