Photographs by Jacqueline Banerjee and Robert Freidus. [Click on
thumbnails for larger images. You may use these and the
following images without prior permission for any scholarly or
educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer
and (2) link your document to this URL.] The rebuilding and
redecoration of Cardiff Castle was William Burges's major life's
work. He started planning it in 1865, the year he first met its
owner, the young John Patrick Crichton-Stuart (1847-1900), the
3rd Marquess of Bute; he was still working on it when he died in
1881. The Bute family had helped to transform Cardiff into "the
coal metropolis of the world" (Norwich 149) with a thriving
port, and the Marquess was immensely wealthy. A Catholic convert
like Pugin, he was as keen a medievalist as his architect.
Burges was therefore given his head, and the requisite funding,
to conjure a fabulous, richly Gothic stately home out of the old
castle accommodation built on this historic site. He was by no
means unique in taki