The very scenic Trakai Island Castle is located on an island in Trakai, Lithuania on Lake Galve. Morris parked the bus and Signe gave timing and information about the castle and its surroundings. She explained a little about the “Karaites” who live/lived here and urged us to walk around and visit their area (didn’t have a clue what “Karaites” were), paid the entrance fee to the castle and let us loose. Massive crowds of tourists milling along the lakeshore to take photos of Trakai Castle while boat men offered yacht trips on windy and cold Lake Galve…..brrr. We later found out that Trakai Castle is extremely popular among Lithuanians and foreigners and a short half day trip or 40-minute ride from Vilnius, our destination tonight. The town of Trakai was a cradle for Lithuanian statehood and once the capital of Lithuania.

There were little stores and stalls on each street selling expensive t-shirts, typical tourist souvenirs, restaurants, cafes and signs touting Kybynlar. Kybynlar? Kybynlar is a traditional dish made by the Karaites (Karaims). It is a leavened dough in the form of a half-moon, filled with lamb or beef and baked in the oven. In other words, a big “pasty” or meat pie. (More about the Karaites later.) The Village of Trakai is build on a peninsula and situated between heavily forested hills and more lakes.

Trakai Island Castle, 1877, Lithuania 

Trakai Island Castle, 2009, Lithuania
Photos taken, the group walked across the pedestrian bridge to explore Trakai Castle at leisure. This huge stone castle was begun in the 14th century, completed around 1409 and was one of the main centers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Only the lower parts of the walls are original, the remainder has been reconstructed. Through the main castle gatehouse and into the courtyard…View image… with a fast look at the map, trying to decide where to begin. There are wonderful and interesting museums inside different castle rooms and we just picked the Western Casemats at random to begin in.

layout of Trakai Castle, Lithuania
Trakai Castle had rooms filled with collections and exhibitions. Money…View image, paintings and major works completed by Vytautas the Great…View image, animal heads, armor and weapons, valuables…View image, and, our favorite, the excellent collection of tobacco pipes…View image…delicately carved with each one unique.

Trakai Palace pipe collection, Lithuania
Trakai Castle has been beautifully restored and we walked up and down the wooden staircases from one level to the next, across a moat into the Main Tower building with even more rooms. The Grand Ducal Quarters, Terrace and Internal Castle Courtyard…

Trakai Castle Main Tower, Lithuania
… and finally horsed around in the Trakai stocks and cage in the middle of the courtyard (or Outer Bailey as it was known). I am sure you know that the stocks have been used since medieval times for humiliation, and punishment but did you also know, according to Wikipedia, that stocks …immobilized its victims exposing them in public place to the scorn of the local people, who often took to insulting, kicking, spitting and in some cases urinating and defecating on its victims..?

It would have been easy to spend more time but there were still the little streets and Karaite areas to explore in Trakai… Had to move along.

 

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