The Dominicans, or Brothers Preachers, were founded at the beginning of the 13th century by Saint Dominic de Guzman, from Spain. The Latin word "dominicanis" means "dogs of the Lord", and so one of the Order's symbols is a white dog with black spots holding a flaming torch in its mouth. The friars set up schools and universities, where they themselves taught. The purpose was to apostolate, to preach the word of God and to study. The lily, book, rosary, star, and bread are the common symbols used by Dominicans.
In 1678, the Chancellor of the GDL, Marcijonas Oginskis, allowed twelve Dominicans to settle in the castle on the Trakai Peninsula and funded the construction of a church and a monastery. Their idea was to build a huge 50-metre-long church here. The monks had to demolish the tower of the castle gates to make the church fit on the planned plot in accordance with the architects' drawings. The dismantled materials were used for the foundations of the church, the walls of the building were up to three metres thick. The construction work continued until the money dried up, and the plans had to be adjusted. One nave of the church was converted into a two-storey monastery and the other into a monastery chapel. A part of the space was used for the cells of the monks and for the kitchen.
An 8-metre-wide courtyard was left between the two buildings, replacing the planned central nave of the church. An incomplete church tower was converted into a bell tower. A storehouse, an icehouse and a wooden officina were built in the courtyard of the castle. The monks kept livestock in the stables for their own use, and they also had three vegetable gardens where they grew potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and other vegetables. By the order of the Tsarist Russian government, the monastery was abolished, the Dominicans were evicted from Trakai, and the buildings of the former monastery were handed over to various institutions, the police, the housing commission, the town hall, and the court archives. Friars had been the owners of the Trakai peninsula for about a century.
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