Trakai CastlePersonal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Trakai Castle, Lithuania. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Trakai Castle and navigate the world using Google Earth Show on map
N 54° 39.112
Book your hotelBook a hostelBook a budget room in one of the youth hostels in Lithuania Free brochuresOrder your free brochure with offers for travelling to Lithuania Other stories: |
SearchSearch pages at Traveladventures.org Go directly to:Travel picturesYou can travel the world using images - select your preferred language below:  |  |  |  |  |  MailinglistIf you want to be updated regularly about new stories and pictures: Google EarthClick your way around Lithuania with pictures (needs Google Earth software) Visual GeographyAdvertiseIt is possible to advertise on this travel site. Travel advertisers, ask for more information! SurveyIs there a difference between a traveler and a tourist? View Results Related search: |
Trakai is a village built on a peninsula, surrounded by lakes on all sides. The village itself is attractive especially in the northern part, where you can find typical wooden cottages. Around the 14th century, Vytautas brought the Karaites here, a sect which he used for his own protection. Vytautas himself constructed a castle on a small island in the lake where it was virtually impossible to conquer. 
When I visited Trakai late March, it was still very cold, foggy weather, and parts of the lake were frozen. Walking across the footbridge (how much must Vytautas' enemies have wished for just such an easy way in!), my fantasy started to work. This became even more so when I was walking around the castle. 
The very thick walls, the openings in them, the virtual impossibility to conquer this castle, made me think about medieval princes on a mission to take away a beautiful princess from one of the towers. How they would lay out their "cunning plan", throw down linen strung together, and escape in a hidden boat. Reality was, that there was no one around, the well-restored castle just continued floating in the lake. Or so it seemed.
