a seaport on the south coast of Wales, is one of the chief towns of Glamorganshire, and ranks as the metropolis of the Principality. It is situated between high hills, at the entrance of a valley through which runs the River Towy (whence the Welsh name of the town, Swansea, "Aber-tawe," is derived), and at the head of a fine bay. Formerly Swansea was much frequented as a watering place, but its rapidly growing commercial and manufacturing interests have given a new character to the population, and even changed the face of the country. The natural features of the neighbourhood are attractive, but the smoke from the copper-works destroys vegetation, poisons cattle, and makes the hill-sides look barren and desolate. The smoke, however, does not find its way outside the town to the westward, and the town is fast increasing in that direction. Its proximity to the Welsh coal-field, combined with the facilities it affords as a seaport, have led Swansea to become the great seat of the copper-ore trade. Nineteenths of the whole quantity of copper ore smelted in the United Kingdom is smelted at Swansea; the foreign ore being brought here from Cuba, South America, Australia, and elsewhere. The first copper-works were established in Swansea in 1719, and the first cargo of foreign copper ore was imported into the town in 1827. There are also silver, tin, and iron-works here, which are supplied with ore from abroad. The value of the silver and copper ore imported into Swansea is very large: a single cargo is often worth from £60,000 to £70,000, and a single smelting firm has imported ore to the value of a quarter of a million in three months. The principal exports are coal and patent fuel, the latter of which is largely manufactured in the town.

The progress of Swansea as a port is of recent date. In 1768 the total number of vessels visiting the place was 694, with a total amount of tonnage of 30,631. In 1800, nine years after the passing of an act for the improvement of the harbour, there were 2590 vessels, with a tonnage of 154,264. In 1850, two years before the opening of the first floating dock, the number of vessels was 3616; tonnage, 262,207. In 1859 the number of vessels was 4772; tonnage, 508,814. In the last-named year extensive new docks were opened, and supplied, together with the old docks, with elaborate hydraulic machinery by which the gates are moved, the bridges swung, and vessels are loaded and discharged. A branch line of railway to the new docks was opened at the same time.

Swansea became a corporate town upon the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, in 1835, and is now divided into two wards, and governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen common councillors. The town council also forms a Local Board of Health, under the Health of Towns Act. Swansea, in conjunction with the neighbouring towns of Neath, Loughor, Aberavon, and Kenfig, returns one member to Parliament.

The remains of Swansea Castle stand on an eminence near the centre of the town. This castle was built by Henry Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, in 1100. The Earl obtained a grant of the lands of Gower (a peninsula running out into the Bristol Channel to the west of Swansea), from William Rufus, and having dispossessed the Welsh prince Caradoc of those lands, built Swansea Castle and several other castles for the defence of his domain. Within the last century the castle has comprised at the same time a union, market-house, blacksmith's shop, Catholic chapel, and gaol. It was used as a debtors' prison by the Duke of Beaufort, the lord of the seigniory of Gower, up to 1859; when, through the intervention of Government, this and the only other two or three prisons of the same kind in the kingdom were abolished. A fine post-office, having the appearance of a church at a distance, was built adjacent to the old castle, and opened in 1857. There are three churches in the town—St Mary's (the parish church), Trinity, and St John's (a Welsh church); and numerous chapels used by the Welsh and English Dissenters of various denominations. The Wesleyan chapel is a handsome structure in the Italian style, and forms one of the chief ornaments of the town. Among the other public buildings worthy of note are the town-hall, the Royal Institution of South Wales (a literary and scientific institution containing a valuable library and museum), the endowed grammar-school, the harbour offices, and the Glamorganshire Bank. Two county newspapers are published at Swansea—the Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and the Cambrian.

The terminus of the Swansea Valley Railway, opened in 1860, is at Swansea, and by means of the South Wales line the town is placed in direct communication with Gloucester on the one side, and Milford on the other. Constant steam communication by sea is kept up with Bristol and Liverpool. Swansea is 216 miles from London, and 84 from Bristol; and the borough has a population (in 1860) of about 50,000.