Trakai

This old Lithuanian capital is now a small, quiet town in an attractive country area of lakes and islands. Most of the town stands on a peninsula dotted with old wooden cottages, many of them built by the Karaites - a Judaist sect originating in Baghdad that adheres to the Law of Moses.

The Karaites were brought to Trakai by Vytautas the Great around 1400AD to serve as bodyguards, and about 150 of them still live here. Their numbers are dwindling rapidly though, giving legitimacy to fears that Lithuania’s smallest ethnic minority could die out. There’s a small Karaites museum here and an early-19th-century Karaites prayer house, both of which were renovated in 1997. Trakai is just 28km (17mi) west of Vilnius, connected to the capital by both train and bus.