Carmarthen is a thriving commercial centre with a good mix of traditional and modern shopping facilities and famous bustling indoor and outdoor market.There is a leisure centre, Art Gallery, Museum, Heritage Centre and National Botanic Garden nearby.
Carmarthen is the county town of Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is on the River Tywi and has a population of about 20,000. It is the site of Trinity College Carmarthen.When Britannia was a Roman province, Carmarthen was the civitas known as Moridunum (meaning sea fort) of the Celtic tribe known as the Demetae. Carmarthen is possibly the oldest town in Wales and was recorded by Ptolemy and in the Antonine Itinerary. The roman fort can be seen still and is believed to date from AD75-77.
The strategic importance of Carmarthen was such that the Norman William fitz Baldwin built a castle probably around 1094. The existing castle site is known to have been used since 1105. The castle was destroyed by Llywelyn the Great in 1215. In 1223 the castle was rebuilt and permission was received to wall the town (a murage). Carmarthen was probably the first mediaeval walled town in Wales. In 1405 the town was taken and the castle was sacked by Owain Glyndwr.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the dominant business of Carmarthen was still agriculture and related trades including woollen manufacture. In the mid 18th century the iron and coal trades became much more important although Carmarthen never developed Ironworks on the scale of Dowlais or Merthyr Tydfil.
The famous Black book of Carmarthen, written around 1250AD, is associated with the town's Priory of St. John the Evangelist and Teulyddog.Carmarthen hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1867, 1911 and 1974 although, at leat in the case of the 1974 Eisteddfod, the Maes was at Abergwili.
Modern day Carmarthen is a midsized town of around 20,000 people. It is served by rail links through Swansea to Cardiff. Carmarthen has a large amount of surviving history including the roman amphitheatre and the castle. The Gwili Railway, a section of the former railway line to Aberystwyth, has been re-opened as a steam powered railway for tourists.
Carmarthen has a large proportion of Welsh speakers, with the county of Carmarthenshire as a whole boasting the largest population of such by number (the largest Welsh-speaking population by proportion is in Gwynedd). Although Carmarthen is on navigable water the harbour sees no commercial use, in part due to the treacherous approaches.
Carmarthen is twinned with Lesneven, France, Santa Marinella, Italy and As Pontes, Spain.
