The peninsula itself is dotted with old wooden cottages, many built by the Karaites, a Judaic sect and Turkic minority originating in Baghdad, which adheres to the Law of Moses.

Their descendants - some 380 families - were brought to Trakai from the Crimea around 1400 to serve as bodyguards. Only 12 families (60 Karaites) live in Trakai and their numbers - 280 in Lithuania - are dwindling rapidly, prompting fears that the country's smallest ethnic minority is dying out. Their beautifully restored early-19th-century Kenessa can be visited.