Trakai Vaka is a former estate of the Tiškevičius family , located between Vilnius and Trakai. Today it is located within the borders of the capital Vilnius and is one of the largest and best-preserved landed estate complexes of nineteenth-century Lithuania . It also includes a Roman Catholic chapel , which also serves as the family mausoleum.

The Tiškevičius family became owners of the vast estate of Vaka Trotokė before 1844. However, it was Jan Vytautas Tiškevičius ( 1831-1892) , Marshal of the nobility of Vilnius, who organised the residence in the estate near Vilnius. Before 1880, he hired the renowned Warsaw architect Leander Marconi ( 1834-1919), who built a classicist palace , taking care of every detail of the finishing touches. Earlier, in 1856, the neo-Gothic mausoleum of the family was built, at the same time as the chapel of the Virgin Mary serving the local population. It was also designed by Leander Marconi.

The chapel was situated in a separate area of the park and palace grounds, in its northern part, next to the neo-Gothic side gate and the organist's house, built a little later. All three elements were given a neo-Gothic costume in contrast to the others, including the outbuildings. This was seen at the time as the most appropriate style for both churches and mausoleums. Importantly, the chapel was initially unplastered, as were the gatehouse and organistery, affecting the viewer with its carefully laid clinker bricks.

The chapel was built on a rectangular plan as a towerless building , with a lower portico on the north side. An entrance to the crypt, which extends under the entire building, is located on the south side of the building. The front and rear elevations are decorated with ogival niches. The windows in the side walls have the same design. The portico is crowned with the statues of St Peter and St Paul, and the polygonal pillars in the corners feature St John the Baptist and St Joseph with the Child Jesus. The sculptures were made by Ludwik Kucharzewski (1838/42-1889), an artist from Warsaw.

In the interior of the chapel, the polychrome, which carpets the entire interior, and the neo-Gothic music choir with organ, to which a cast-iron staircase leads, have been preserved. These are elements that were created later than the chapel itself, probably in the last quarter of the 19th century. Wooden neo-Gothic stalls were placed under the walls of the building and its floor was covered with ceramic tiles. A large plaque with the Leliwa coat of arms of the Tyszkiewicz family was placed in it.

A so-called neck with stairs on the southern side leads to the crypt. After opening the door, one can see a plaque with the inscription: "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND / THE LIFE WHO BELIEVES IN ME / WHEN I DIE WILL BE LIVING", which is a quotation from the Gospel according to St. John (11, 25-26). In the vaulted crypt there are a total of 10 metal - tin and iron - decorated coffins , in which the corpse of Jan Tyszkiewicz rests (inscription on the shorter side: "HERE LIE THE CORPSES / S. P. / JANA HR. TYSZKIEWICZ. / WAS BORN 1831 ON 8 AUGUST. / DIED 1892 DAY OF FEBRUARY 10 / PROSECUTED FOR THREE HEALTHY MARYJA."), as well as Anna née Zabiełło (1804-1857) and her husband Józef (1805-1844), their daughter Krystyna (1827-1844), son Jan Witold and his wife Izabela Hortensja née Tyszkiewicz (1836-1907); who died within a few months in 1861. Zofia Marta Tyszkiewiczówna, who was probably the daughter of Jan Witold and Izabela Hortensja; Józef Tyszkiewicz (1863-1867), son of Józef, lord of Landwarow, Kretinga and Palanga, and his wife Zofia née Horwatta (1838-1919); Jan Józef (1867-1903), son of Jan Witold and Izabela Hortensja, and his wife Elżbieta Maria née Krasińska (1871-1906). The tenth coffin remains empty.

Next to the chapel are two gravestones. The first - the older one - has the form of a cast-iron cross on a stone plinth with the inscription: "Here he gave his life / in defence of this / Church / Tadeusz KUŃSKI / d. 8go września / 1883". A more obscure event was linked to the attack by Tsarist soldiers on the chapel and palace in Trakai Vaca. We can tell a little more about the death of Jan Michal Tyszkiewicz, who is buried next door and whose death was widely publicised in the press of the time. The last owner of Trakai Vaca is commemorated by a modest tombstone with the inscription: "Ś. P. / Jan Tyszkiewicz / bearing the Holy. Sacraments / Knight of the "Virtuti Militari" / Lieutenant of the reserve regiment of Vilnius Uhlans / born in Waka on 30 May 1896 / died a tragic death on 30 May 1939 / in Miedzyrzecz Podlaski".

The death of the last owner of Waka Trotska described occurred as a result of a plane crash , on the sunny morning of 30 May 1939, his birthday. The plane was piloted by an experienced pilot and Tyszkiewicz's cousin Stanisław Zamoyski , and the tragedy happened in front of their families and friends. Tyszkiewicz and Zamoyski were attending a retreat organised by a cousin of both aristocrats, Andrzej Potocki, at his palace in Międzyrzecz Podlaski. There was a flight from Warsaw at 11.30 a.m. on 30 May to Vilnius, where a dinner was waiting for Tyszkiewicz to celebrate his birthday. So Jan Michał asked Wiktor Plater for a seat in his cousin Zamoyski's private avionette. The catastrophe happened just after the machine had taken off, because, as it turned out, the makeshift runway in the pasture was too short and the plane hit a garden post. After the crash, the widow Anna Janina née Radziwiłł (1907-1983) and her children Anna, Elżbieta and Zygmunt Jan, faced with the war, found shelter with the Tyszkiewicz family in England.