Experience the best of Trakai

Trakai lies among lakes and woods west of Vilnius, and its red-brick castle stands on an island in Lake Galvė, joined to the shore by wooden footbridges. The castle was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Trakai was a seat of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and a rival to Vilnius, and it was rebuilt in the twentieth century after centuries of decay.

Grand Duke Vytautas brought families of Karaites, a Turkic-speaking people who follow Karaite Judaism, to Trakai around 1400, and their descendants still live in wooden houses along the main street, with a prayer house of their own. The ruins of a second castle stand on the peninsula between two lakes. Boats and pedalos drift across the lakes in summer, and the Trakai Historical National Park protects the surrounding woods and shores.

Kibinai, baked pasties of meat or vegetables, are the Karaite speciality and are sold along the main street. Lithuanian dishes include cepelinai, stuffed potato dumplings, and šaltibarščiai, a cold pink beetroot soup. The lakes freeze in winter, and the castle looks best in summer light or under frost in the bright, cold months.