Monuments to visit Newport (Casnewydd)

The best preserved Roman amphitheatre in the country, built around 90 AD and now covered by grass. The arena was oval in shape, with eight entrances. Up to 6,000 spectators gathered on the stands more than 2,000 years ago to watch gladiatorial battles. The remains of the baths built for the soldiers who arrived around 74 AD consisted of rooms for hot and cold baths, exercise rooms, an open-air swimming pool...

It's a handsome ^17th-century red-brick manor house, once home to the wealthy Morgan family. Move from room to room to discover, through reconstructions of interiors and genre scenes, what life might have been like for a bourgeois family of the time and its servants. Don't miss the gilded salon and the cedar cabinet with its fragrant panelling. You can visit the vast 36-hectare gardens, some of whose original features are still visible, such as geometric flowerbeds and a superb wrought-iron gate.

In 1799, fourteen locks were built on the banks of the Brecon Canal to link Newport to the vast mineral transport network. Today, this work of hydraulic engineering is the subject of a rehabilitation plan. The reservoirs and former locks, now overgrown with vegetation, are lined with trees and green spaces. People come here for picnics and walks. A visitor center tells us more about the history of this transportation route.

This ferry bridge, theonly one of its kind in Great Britain, was inaugurated in 1906. Its particular metal structure is explained by the fact that, since the banks of the Usk River are very low, the construction of a standard bridge would have made it impossible for boats to pass through. Towers 75 metres high have therefore been built and instead of crossing the bridge by rolling or walking, we drive on a platform dragged underneath the bridge structure! It can support a maximum of six cars at a time and 120 passengers.