Trakai Voivodeship

Trakai Voivodeship,Trakai Palatinate, or Troki Voivodeship (Lithuanian: Trakų vaivadija, Latin: Palatinatus Trocensis, Polish: Województwo trockie), was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1413 until 1795.

History

Trakai Voivodeship together with Vilnius Voivodeship was established by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great in 1413 according to the Union of Horodło. Vytautas copied Polish system of administrative division in order to centralize and strengthen the government. Trakai Voivodeship replaced the former Duchy of Trakai, which was ruled directly by the Grand Duke or his close relative (brother or son). The Duke of Trakai (Latin: dux Trocensis) was replaced by appointed officials – voivodes and his deputy castellan.

The voivodeship was divided into four powiats: Grodno County, Kaunas, Trakai (ruled directly by the voivode), and Upytė. The biggest cities in the voivodeship were Kaunas, Grodno and Trakai.

Trakai

Trakai ( Trakai  (see names section for alternate and historic names) is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 kilometres (17 miles) west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 497.1 square kilometres (191.9 square miles) of area and, according to 2007 estimates, is inhabited by 5,357 people. A notable feature of Trakai is that the town was built and preserved by people of different nationalities. Historically, communities of Karaims, Tatars, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews and Poles lived here.

Names

The name of the town was first recorded in chronicles from 1337 in German as Tracken (later also used spelling Traken) and is derived from the Lithuanian word trakai (singular: trakas meaning a glade). Since the time of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city was known as Troki in Polish. Its other alternate names include Trok (Yiddish), Troky, and Traki.