10 Trakai Island Castle Facts

Trakai Island Castle Facts

Trakai Island Castle Facts

  1. Grand Duke Vytautas the Great died in the castle without being crowned as King of Lithuania in 1430.
  2. Trakai Island Castle is an island castle located in Trakai, Lithuania, on an island in Lake Galvė.
  3. Trakai was one of the main centres of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the castle held great strategic importance.
  4. In 1414, the Flemish traveller Guillebert de Lannoy described the castle in these words “The old castle stands on one side of the lake, in open ground, the another one stands in the middle of a second lake, and is within a cannon shot of the old one. It is completely new, built from bricks following French pattern”.
  5. Trakai Island Castle is now a major tourist attraction.
  6. The Castle was built in the 14th century by Kęstutis.
  7. Soviet Communists restored the castle and established the Trakai History Museum there.
  8. The expansion of the castle in the early 15th century marked the third phase of Trakai’s development. The walls of the castle were strengthened to a thickness of 2.5 metres and raised with additional firing galleries. Three major defensive towers were constructed on the corners. The southwestern tower was also used as a prison.
  9. Trakai Island Castle lost its military importance soon after the Battle of Grunwald, when the chief enemy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was defeated by the Lithuanian-Polish army.
  10. The construction of the stone castle was begun in the 14th century by Kęstutis, and around 1409 major works were completed by his son Vytautas the Great, who died in this castle in 1430.
Trakai Island Castle Facts
Trakai Island Castle Facts