Trakai - the ancient capital of Lithuania.

dgarsan (59)in #travel • 8 years ago

Trakai Castle, located near the ancient city of Trakai and 27 kilometers from the modern capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, is the largest of all located on the territory of the country.

Moreover, it is considered to be the only fortification structure in the whole of Eastern Europe, located on a separate island. All this, combined with the extraordinary beauty of the castle itself and its surrounding nature, caused the unusual interest of tourists coming to these places from all directions.

It was thought of as an outpost against the expansion of the Teutonic Order. But during construction, Lithuania was on the verge of accepting Catholicism and the relationship with the Order was so good that the main mason of the Order built the castle citadel. It left its imprint on the face of the castle. It looks more like a European fortress than a Slavic one. But the castle and its scope all the same differs from most European small and close ones.

The castle was completed in 1409, and the following year it was from here that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania went to battle the Grunwald battle with the Teutonic Order. In the history of the castle, as it should be, there are also love stories and brutal murders, including their masters. The castle served as the capital of the state, many Lithuanian princes were born here. For several centuries here was one of the centers of European politics.

Because of its power and convenient island location, the castle has never been captured.

This was only succeeded by the Russian troops in 1655, when the castle was taken and destroyed. Since then, the Trokai castle was in the status of ruins.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, attempts have been made to restore the castle, in the middle of the 20th century, they took the matter seriously. And they ended by the beginning of the 21st century in modern Lithuania, when the castle appears before us in all its glory and grandeur.