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Trakai In Your Pocket

Trakai In Your Pocket

First mentioned in 1337 by the Teutonic Knights, and one of Lithuania’s former medieval capitals, despite being home to just 5,400 souls modern-day Trakai provides boundless cultural and pastoral experiences for scores of urbanites of both local and foreign persuasion, year round. Crowned by a magnificent Gothic castle, Trakai (from the Lithuanian word trakas, or glade) is equally well known for its many inhabitants both past and present, among them Lithuanians, Jews, Poles (who still make up a small percentage of the population and who know the town as Troki), Russians, Tatars and the Lithuanian Karaite, an intriguing, Turkic-speaking offshoot of the larger Judaic Karaite movement who arrived in the town from the Crimea at the end of the 14th century and who are currently teetering on the border of extinction. Just 28km west of Vilnius and an hour or so by car from Kaunas, Trakai is both a tempting daytrip as well as a destination worthy of further attention thanks to it being located inside the country’s smallest national park.

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Latest Trakai Comments

  • Markizas
    I had two wonderful meals at Markizas in 2007. On Easter Sunday I also enjoyed quite a lively time with the staff in the evening. I found the family-owned atmosphere to make it have the old-country feel that I was looking for all over Eastern Euro[...]
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