On Saturday, I joined a tour to the Trakai Castle - the City Tour office offered this trip for 32€ including 35 min drive, entrance to the castle and a tour guide - it was really worth the money as Julia explained a lot of Lithuanian traditions and the history of the castle.
The castle was built by Grand Duke Gediminas in the 14th century who lived there with his 16 children. The first castle was built on a peninsula in one of the five lakes surrounding Trakai. Later a second island castle was built that has been restored in the past century after it lasted away for 250 years without roof.
The castle consisted of two parts - the outer part with the garrison, stables and general kitchen. The inner part was secured by another 5 hurdles. Behind a drawbridge and massive gates the family of the Grand Duke and Duchess lived. The important grand dukes for Lithuania have been:
Mindaugas - unifying five principalities to Lithuania
Gediminas - who built the first castle in Trakai and Vilnius
Algirdas - overthrew another brother before reigning together with Algirdas, enlarged the duchy
Kestutis - reigned with Algirdas, mainly in Western Lithuania
Vytautas the Great - who liberated the country from the constant attacks from crusaders
In Trakai, there are living two special ethnic groups:
For lunch, I followed the advice of our guide and walked to a Karai restaurant where I ate ... with meat and mushrooms.
By 3 pm, the bus returned to Vilnius.
The castle was built by Grand Duke Gediminas in the 14th century who lived there with his 16 children. The first castle was built on a peninsula in one of the five lakes surrounding Trakai. Later a second island castle was built that has been restored in the past century after it lasted away for 250 years without roof.
outer castle
inner castle
inner castle courtyard
Mindaugas - unifying five principalities to Lithuania
Gediminas - who built the first castle in Trakai and Vilnius
Algirdas - overthrew another brother before reigning together with Algirdas, enlarged the duchy
Kestutis - reigned with Algirdas, mainly in Western Lithuania
Vytautas the Great - who liberated the country from the constant attacks from crusaders
Part of Treasury
Ball room
In Trakai, there are living two special ethnic groups:
- Tatars who follow the Muslim faith
- Karaim whose religion is a combination of Jewish and Muslim tradition as odd as it may sound. It's only a small community that organizes festivals every year to gather Karaim from all over the world. This way, they want to give their children the opportunity to meet and find a partner in life. As they should marry only for live and only another Karaim.
Karim Kenasa
For lunch, I followed the advice of our guide and walked to a Karai restaurant where I ate ... with meat and mushrooms.
By 3 pm, the bus returned to Vilnius.
1 comment:
That's an interesting place.
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