56 NORTH EASTERN EUROPE
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp68–9
STAR SIGHTS. Lakeside Walk
. History Museum
Trakai Island Castle 2
Trakų salos pilis
Located on one of the 21 islands in Lake Galvė in the
peninsula town of Trakai, the Island Castle was built as
a seat of power during the reign of Vytautas the Great
in the 13th century. The castle was completed just before
the Grand Duchy’s crushing victory over the Teutonic
knights at the Battle of Grünwald. As Vilnius grew in
importance, Trakai lost its significance and was destroyed
by the Cossacks during the 1655 Russian invasion. In the
late 19th century, the elegiac island ruins captured the
imagination of poets and painters during the National
Revival. Oddly, it was the Soviet authorities who, in the
1950s, sanctioned the reconstruction of this monument
to Lithuania’s glorious past. It was completed in 1987.
The circular defence
towers have 4-m
(13-ft) thick bases.A wooden
footbridge links
Trakai to the
Island Castle.
Yachts
Between May and
October, yachts
from the nearby
Žalgiris Yacht Club
are moored next to
the Island Castle.
They can be hired
by the hour, but
charges vary.. Lakeside Walk
One way to appreciate
Trakai’s idyllic lake-
filled landscape and the
scale of the castle’s
construc tion is to
take the pretty walk
that follows the shore
of the island.
Dry moat, separating the main
castle from the outer courtyard