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. Archeological excavations testify that the area had been inhabited as far as several thousands years ago. Trakai is encircled with a chain of castle hills. It is supposed that wooden castles stood on top of each of them at the beginning of our era, A castle hill also rises in Old Trakai. The Lithuanian annals certify that Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, build a castle there in 1321 and transfered the state capital to Trakai from Kernave, which is also located not far from Vilnius, on the river Neris.
The castle of Old Trakai was not particularly safe for it lacked favourable natural conditions for defence. Duke Kestutis started looking for a spot to build another, more powerful castle. The New Trakai emerged on the shore of Lake Galve. Until the second half of the 14th century no distinction was made between Old and New Trakai; the history of two towns, therefore, often lacks reliable information.
Written sources say that by 1323 Vilnius was already the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although Trakai has lost the status of the capital, its castles retained their importance as a major stronghold and highly fortified outpost of Vilnius in the struggle against the Teutonic Orded. For a long period of time Trakai remained the residence of the Dukes and a significant center of Lithania’s political and economical life.
Beginning with the rule of Grand Duke Gediminas (1316-1341), the throne of Grand Dukes in Lithuania became hereditary. As a result, all through the 14th and 15th centuries Lithuania was ruled by the Gediminas’ dynasty. After Gediminas death the Lithuanian state, which had by that time expanded far into Russian-inhabited lands, was ruled by his two soons – Algirdas and Kestutis. The domain of later included the ethnic Lithuanian territories and Trakai remained his residence.
In 1379 the Lithuanian Dukes Kestutis, his sons Vytautas and Lengvenis, and Jogaila, the son of the deceased Grand Duke Algirdas, signed in Trakai an agreement with the Masters of both the German Orders on the rules of hunting and trade and on the settlement of the borderland.
In the 15th century both the town and the castle prospered. Trakai was the administrative center of a large territory extending its power even over such famous towns of feudal Lithuania as Gardinas and Kaunas. The town was visited by famous European diplomats and envoys of those times. At the times of Vytautas’ rule various documents were signed here and privileges granted. At the beginning of the 15th century Trakai was granted the Magdeburg Charter, i.e., the status of municipal autonomy. The number of handicraftsmen increased, and a school was established here.
By the end of 16th century the town had gradually lost its former political importance. It was finale outgrown by Vilnius. The absence of trade rotes led to an economical decline. Soon the town became a kind of a place of exile.