Pictures from Vilnius and Trakai, Lithuania
December 2002
Salvör Gissurardottir www.asta.is
Pilies Street (Castle Street)
a long curving street along which vendors set up tables covered with all sorts of hand-crafted goods for sale.
Trakai, 25 kilometers west of Vilnius, is best known for the distinctive, red-bricked Castle sitting in the middle of a nearby lake. It was once the castle of Lithuania's Grand Dukes.The area is also home to the Karaite community, a Turkic and Judaic people who came to Lithuania to serve as bodyguards to the Grand Duke in the 14th century.
The town was mentioned in German chronicles for the very fist time in 1337.
According to the chronicles, the Grand Duke Gediminas after a successful hunt
found this nice place not far away from the capital town of his time, Kernavė,
and decided to erect the castle there.
From the Pub prie Universiteto www.pub.lt
Vilnius Cathedral 16th centure
Ya Gotta Have It! ~ Lithuanian Recipes
