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Trakai (; see names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capital city. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The city is inhabited by 5,357 © Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania M3010210: Population at the beginning of the year. people, according to 2007 estimates. A notable feature of Trakai is that the city was built and preserved by people of different nationalities. Historically, communities of Crimean Karaites, Lipka Tatars, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews and Polish people lived here. Trakai was the Middle Ages capital city of Lithuania.
Historically, the Trakai Island Castle, whose construction was finished by Grand Duke Vytautas, served as a residence of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
According to the census of 2021, there were 5426 inhabitants in Trakai city: 3694 Lithuanians (68.1%), 1020 Poles (18.8%), 395 Russians (7.3%), 62 Belarusians (1.1%). There are other traditional minorities among Trakai inhabitants – Crimean Karaites, Tatars (also known as Lipka Tatars), Jews (also known as Lithuanian Jews), Russians Old Believers and others.
Trakai Historical National Park was founded on 23 April 1991 to preserve Trakai as a centre of Lithuanian statehood as well as the park's authentic nature. The park covers 82 km2, 34 km2 of which are covered by forests, and 130 km2 of which are covered by lakes.
Aukštadvaris Regional Park was founded in 1992 to preserve the valuable landscapes in the upper reaches of Verknė and Strėva. The area of the park is 153.5 km2, most of which is covered by forests. There are 72 lakes here, the biggest of which is Vilkokšnis.
Trakai is a city built on water. The city is surrounded by the lakes of Luka (Bernardinai), Totoriškės, Galvė, Akmena, Gilušis. There are a number of architectural, cultural and historical monuments in Trakai. The history museum in the castle was established in 1962. Festivals and concerts take place in the island castle in summer.
The town was in the center of a conflict between Grand Duke Jogaila (later to become King of Poland) with his uncle Kęstutis. In 1382 Jogaila's and Kęstutis's armies met near Trakai, but Jogaila tricked Kęstutis and imprisoned him in Kreva. A few weeks later Kęstutis died in captivity and Jogaila transferred the castles to his brother Skirgaila, who became the governor of Lithuania Proper. However, his rule was briefly interrupted when in 1383 joint forces of Kęstutis's son Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights captured the town. In 1392, Vytautas and Jogaila signed the Astrava Agreement ending their quarrel. Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania while Jogaila technically remained his superior. Vytautas also regained his father's lands, including Trakai. Despite his official capital being in Vilnius, Vytautas spent more time in Trakai. In the early 15th century he replaced the older, wooden fortress with a stone castle. Some design elements were borrowed from the castles of the Teutonic Knights as Vytautas spent some time with the Teutons forming an alliance against Jogaila in earlier years.
Trakai became a political and an administrative centre of the Duchy, sometimes named the de facto capital of Lithuania. The construction of the brick castles was finished and a Catholic church was built. In 1409, the town was granted Magdeburg Rights; it is one of the first towns in Lithuania to get city rights. The village started rapidly developing into a town. Also in 1409 Grand Duke Vytautas the Great made Trakai the capital city of Lithuania and relocated the State Treasury of Lithuania and Lithuanian Metrica to Trakai. In 1413, it became a seat of the Trakai Voivodeship and a notable center of administration and commerce.
During the wars between Russia and Poland between 1654 and 1667, the town was plundered and burnt. In the aftermath of the war with the Tsardom of Russia in 1655, both castles were demolished and the town's prosperity ended. The castle ruins remained a historical landmark. During the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Trakai was plundered again, as famine and plague swept the country.
After the Partitions of Poland in 1795, the area was annexed by the Russian Empire. After World War I, the area became part of the restored Republic of Poland. In 1929, the Polish authorities ordered reconstruction and restoration of the Trakai Island Castle. The works in the Upper castle were almost complete in 1939, when the Invasion of Poland started and the area was soon annexed by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany during Operation Barbarossa. During the war, more than 5,000 Jews from the Trakai region were murdered by the Nazis. In 1944, during Operation Tempest, the town was liberated by joint forces of the underground Polish Home Army and Soviet partisans. After World War II it was again annexed by the Soviet Union and made part of the Lithuanian SSR in the Soviet Union; subsequently many of the city's and area's ethnic Polish inhabitants left for the recovered Territories of the Polish People's Republic.
In 1961, the reconstruction of the upper castle and a high tower construction were completed; however, the works came to a halt as a result of Nikita Khrushchev's speech of 21 December 1960, where the First Secretary declared that reconstruction of the castle would be a sign of glorification of Lithuania's feudalism past. Restoration work in the lower castle were not resumed until the 1980s and were completed by Lithuanian authorities in the early 1990s. Today the Island Castle serves as the main tourist attraction, hosting various cultural events such as operas and concerts.
The local Karaim community, which was the backbone of the town's economy, suffered severely during the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the massacres of 1648. By 1680, only 30 Karaim families were left in the town. Their traditions, including not accepting , prevented the community from regaining its strength. Early in the 18th century war, famine, and Bubonic plague reduced the Karaims to three families. By 1765 Karaim community increased to 300. Trakai kenessa is a rare example of a surviving wooden synagogue with an interior dome.Preserved Wooden Synagogues in Lithuania, documented by the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in 1996 and 2004 Kibinai, which is the traditional Karaim pastry, became a local speciality and are mentioned in tourist guides.Lonely Planet Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, 2012, p. 25.
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