VILNIUS - In Your Pocket

64 what to see
Trakai
First mentioned in 1337 by the Teutonic Knights, and one
of Lithuania’s former medieval capitals, despite being
home to just 5,400 souls modern-day Trakai provides
boundless cultural and pastoral experiences for scores
of urbanites of both local and foreign persuasion, year
round. Crowned by a magnificent Gothic castle (see
below), Trakai is equally well known for its many inhabitants
both past and present, among them Lithuanians,
Jews, Poles (who still make up a small percentage of the
population and who know the town as Troki), Russians,
Tatars and the Lithuanian Karaite, an intriguing, Turkicspeaking
offshoot of the larger Judaic Karaite movement
who arrived in the town from the Crimea at the end of
the 14th century and who are currently teetering on the
border of extinction. Just 28km west of Vilnius, Trakai is
both a tempting daytrip as well as a destination worthy
of further attention thanks to it being located inside the
country’s smallest national park. More like playing a giant
game of snakes and ladders designed by MC Escher
than an enriching cultural experience, the Trakai History
Museum is spread around the Castle and linked via a baffling
array of higgledy-piggledy wooden steps and dark,
plunging spiral staircases. The two main collections are
to be found inside the western casemates (casements)
and the Ducal Palace, the former and least interesting
made up of 19th-century European glassware, ivory
walking stick handles and the like and the latter a collection
of items dug up in the vicinity of the Castle, a huge
collection of coins, a small exhibition dedicated to the
Lithuanian Karaite and a few life-size models of medieval
gentlemen with enormous handlebar moustaches. Some
explanations are in English, but much remains in Lithuanian,
Russian and German only. More than worth it for
a look around the Castle if nothing else.
Castle & Trakai History Museum (Trakų Pilis
ir Trakų Istorijos Muziejus) Tel. (+370) 5 285
39 46, www.trakaimuziejus.lt. QOpen 10:00 - 18:00
(until April 30). Closed Mon. Open 10:00 - 19:00 (from
May 1). Admission 14/8/6Lt.
Vilnius University (Vilniaus Universitetas)
C-2/3, Universiteto 3, tel. (+370) 5 268 72 98, www.
vu.lt. Established in 1579 and one of the oldest universities
in Eastern Europe, the splendid ensemble that makes
up Vilnius University’s main campus buildings embraces
just about every major architectural style of the last 400
years. Originally belonging to the Catholic Church, the
University became a secular seat of learning in 1773 and
has remained so ever since. Closed for much of the 19th
and the first 18 years of the 20th century, famous past
students who’ve studied here include the Polish Romantic
poets Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki, the Lithuanian
author and historian Simonas Daukantas (see him
on any 100Lt note) and the Lithuania-born Polish Nobel
Prize-winning author Czesław Miłosz. As well as housing
the oldest library in the country, Vilnius University is also
famed for its lovely courtyards, of which depending on
your definition of what a courtyard is, there are either 12
or 13. The University itself claims 13, although by rights
the correct number should be 12 as one of them only
has three walls, the fourth having been destroyed during
construction work on the neighbouring Presidential Palace.
The ensemble was fully restored in 1979 and is well
worth investigating. A map can be found at Universiteto
7 explaining where everything is. QOpen 09:00 - 18:00.
Closed Sun. Admission 5/1Lt. J
Monuments
Frank Zappa A-3, K. Kalinausko 1. Hot Rats! Deceased
rock and roll pervert, part-time classical composer, father of
Moon Unit and all round creative genius Frank Vincent Zappa
(1940-1993) has had his head immortalised in brass and
stuck on a stainless steel pole in a lacklustre courtyard just
west of Old Town. Commissioned by a student and created
by the late sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas (1926-2011) who
once churned out Lenins and other noteworthy comrades for
the bureaucrats in Moscow, the statue is notable as being
the first monument of the man to be erected anywhere in the
world. If you’re now wondering what the connection between
Lithuania and Frank Zappa is, don’t. There isn’t one. J
Grand Duke Gediminas C-2, Arkikatedros Square.
Unveiled in September 1996, the monument to Gediminas
(Pol. Giedymin, 1275-1341), who famously founded Vilnius in
1323 and who was also Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1316
until his death, stands more or less on the spot where a howling
iron wolf that inspired the moving of the country’s capital
from Trakai allegedly appeared in his dream. Strangely, the
aforementioned beast is represented in V. Kašuba’s creation
not in metal as one would expect, but in stone. J
Lazdynų Pelėda C-5, Karmelitų & Arklių. Lazdynų
Pelėda (Hazelnut Owl) was the collective pen name of two
sisters, Sofija Ivanauskaitė-Pšibiliauskienė (1867-1926) and
Marija Ivanauskaitė-Lastauskienė (1872-1957). Born into a
family of Polish-speaking nobility in the village of Paragiai in
northeast Lithuania, their stories, often full of political observation,
were written in Polish by Marija and then translated
into Lithuanian by her sibling. The Egyptian style sculpture
made in their likeness and unveiled in 1995 is officially known
as Seserys (Sisters) and is the work of the sculptor Dalia
Matulaitė and the architects Rimantas Buivydas and Juras
Pankevičius. J
Mindaugas C-1, Arsenalo 1. Taking pride of place outside
the National Museum since July 6, 2003, the 750th anniversary
of the crowning of the country’s one and only king in
1253, Mindaugas (Pol. Mendog, 1200-1263), who’s generally
considered to be the founder of the Lithuanian state, was a
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