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TRAKAI
Trakai is the city of South-Eastern Lithuania, 29 km to West from Vilnius, district center with 6000 inhabitants on 1150 ha territory (550 ha of them take up lakes).
4502 ha area in and around Trakai is the landscape reservation.
Tourists coming to Vilnius are likely to visit Trakai, the ancient capital of Lithuania. Trakai is one of the oldest Lithuanian settlements spreading over unique glacial terrain. The relief of Trakai features moraine hills and numerous lakes. Many hills emerge from water like islands. The lakes of Trakai lie in the highest enervations of a hilly massif and have a very small feeding area. The latter feature makes the whole environmental complex quite a specific phenomenon from the geo-ecological point of view.
The settlement appeared in this convenient and secure place as early as the 1st millennium A.D. After the establishment of the centralized Lithuanian state Trakai was one of its first capitals. In the 14th century a fortified castle was built on the peninsula of the Lake Galve and the construction of an insular castle was begun which in the 15th century became the residence of Lithuanian Grand Dukes. It is believed that in the 15th century Trakai enjoyed the Magdeburg Rights. At the end of the 14 century, then the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded its territories reaching as far as the Black Sea, the Grand Duke Vytautas brought some 400 families of Karaites (a small ethnic group) from the Crimea to serve as his castle guards. Thus, in 1989, the 600th anniversary since the arrival of the Karaites to Trakai was marked.
Several dozen of Karaite families still live in Trakai up to the present time. They have retained their language and customs. The whole Karaite heritage deserves special protection. Trakai is a unique monument of glacial landscape, Lithuanian history and of the Karaite culture. As an original combination of nature and history, and an object of great aesthetic significance, Trakai is visited by about 350 thousand people annually.
