The estimated 24 meters high tower was attached to a corner of the square shaped knight castle. A clock was showing the current time on top of it, and that is from where the city guard was peering at the surrounding landscape also. Gunpowder was kept inside. Nicolaus Istvánffy mentioned the building as 'a round shaped tower in the middle of the castle built from bricks' at the end of the 16th century. The tower was attached to the knight castle at a later time according to Valéria Kováts: '...The wall base of the buttressed castle was made of flat, slim and elongated bricks, ...the bricks used to build the tower show a different type, they are smaller, broader, thicker.'

During excavations between 2004-2006, in the third western casemate of the row of casemates, the team of László Gere discovered a NW-SE oriented, slightly curved, 3 m deep ditch. West of the ditch, in the penultimate casemate the foundations of a tower were unearthed. The tower was attached to the rectangular fastness to fortify the NE corner of the castle, by the time of Zrínyi, it probably served a different purpose. A 30 cm thick charred layer implies this tower was destroyed in the Siege of 1566.

The rectangular edifice, with more than 2 m thick walls overlooking the moat, can be identified as the residence of the castellan. The building was severely damaged during the siege as implied by brick blocks melded together with iron and copper, objects deformed beyond recognition and gravely injured skeletons recovered from its vicinity. Originally, the building may have been a gate tower and its function plausibly changed when the castle was expanded. By 1566 it was most likely the residence of Zrínyi.

Archaeologists have identified the site and structure of the bridge arching over the ditch of the inner castle, which was the site of the famous sally near the residence of the castellan. The truss bridge stood on four pillars, which have been identified, although no signs of the gate tower overlooking it survived.

In times of war it was common practice to cover the outside facets of the walls with a layer of earth, remove the roofs and fill up the rooms of selected buildings with grit. Artificial mounds created in this manner served as artillery platforms, providing better sight and enabling shooting further. According to historical vedutas, several such barbettes were present at Sziget Castle.

The castle was accessible from the Old Town through a single long bridge. In its middle section, where the Almás Stream formed a deeper bed, the bridge was intersected by a drawbridge. A timber structure was erected to protect the lifting gear and its garrison.

Before the Siege of 1556, the 'Holy Church' located within the castle walls was often mentioned. It most likely stood near the southern gate tower. During the siege, the so-called Hill Bastion was depicted there. Numerous contemporary drawings display a rectangular building filled up with grit near the southern wall, with cannons located on top. It is plausible, that the ruins of the church were converted to an artillery platform named Hill Bastion.

A building with two towers often depicted on images of the castle is plausibly not a church but a palace, located under the present-day palace and mosque. Unfortunately little is known about the building itself, for this reason we displayed it in our reconstruction only symbolically.

From the time when Ferenc Tahy was castellan and the frequency of Ottoman raids increased, a contemporary inventory of military equipment survived, containing the following record: ‘A treadmill and two horses located in the outer castle.’ The treadmill was a Medieval type of mill powered by human or animal movement.

Reconstructing the names of the corner towers or bastions of the castle is no easy task, as these denominations changed several times throughout history and also there are occasional contradictions within different written sources. Some argue, that the SW bastion is to be identified with the Nádasdy Bastion of 1566, others claim its name was Görösgali Bastion, furthermore it was referred to as Sennyei Bastion on more than one occasion.

Inventories refer to the NE bastion of the castle as Pécsi Bastion (meaning Bastion of Pécs). In those times, the highway leading to Pécs ran at a different track, along present-day Szabadság Street in the direction of Szemlék Hill, north of Kispeterd and Nagypeterd and arrived at Pécs through Szentlőrinc. Occasionally, this defensive building was referred to as Liget Bastion (meaning Greenwood Bastion) which got its name from the woodland located on the far side of the castle lake.

Reconstructing the names of the corner towers or bastions of the castle is no easy task, as these denominations changed several times throughout history and also there are occasional contradictions within different written sources. The name of the SW bastion is also conflicted, as in 1556 one of the bastions of Old Town is named Henyei Bastion, yet in his description Istvánffy refers to a bastion of the castle with this name.

The hemi circular outward fortifications visible on several drawings as well, made it more difficult to approach the gates. The fence made of sharp-pointed poles made it possible for the defenders to see through and shoot between the poles, but the attackers were held up by it at the same time.

The New Town assumedly had a gate facing south as well, towards Siklós. It is present in some drawings and missing in some others. Among written sources we only find one mentioning, in the text of Samuel Budina, though this reference does not prove squarely the existence of the gate: ‘On the 7th of august the Turks wove baskets from cane collected from the shaw and the surrounding fields, they stuffed them with soil, and carried them to the New Town. After this they threw mounds, reinforced with ditches. They hauled cannons on these, cunningly disguising them, and they attacked our soldiers stationed behind the fences erected next to the gate of the New Town, from there continuously.’

The natural course of the Almás Stream was dammed up. The water of the bulged lake was released into the moat of the Old Town and the New Town through penstocks. Next to the last penstock a mill was operating according to several engravings. It is also mentioned in written sources, like in the letter of Márk Horváth concerning the siege of 1566: ‘They told him, he shouldn’t have them attack from the mill, but rather from the iron gate (the gate of the outer castle). Thus did they pull the cannons away from the mill in the east.’

The SW bastion of Old Town is referred to as Késás Bastion by literary sources. The inventory composed during the command of Ferenc Tahy records that ‘a three span mortar’ stood there.

The southern gate overlooked the bridge connecting Old Town and New Town and is mentioned by Miklós Istvánffy in his account of the Siege of 1566.

Literary sources of the Siege of 1566 refer to SE bastion of Old Town as the Henyei Bastion. A report from 1566 contains the following: ‘a 208 yards long section of the eastern city wall and hedge above the Henyei Bastion was burned down together with the houses’.

The church of the Old Town is not mentioned in literary evidence. Contemporary images of the city depict an ample, churchlike building with two towers. The 17th century military survey depicts an Ottoman mosque next to the Pécsi Gate. However, unlike other mosques this edifice was not oriented towards Mecca, implying it was converted using the walls of a former Christian church. Presently the Church of St. Anthony of Padua stands at the site. Since the Medieval Castle of Sziget was not abound in stone as most of the city was constructed with timber and wattle-and-daub, one might not err by reconstructing the church of Old Town corresponding to local architectural practice as a rectangular timber building with a separate belfry.

The eastern gate of the city leads to the highway to Pécs. According to literary accounts it was slightly larger than the other gates, although its tower is not as high, because the spread of artillery forbade the construction of high towers.

Timber watchtowers served the purpose of surveying the land around the castle. Watchmen stationed atop could see afar and when an enemy army approached, warned the garrison of the castle with gunshots.

The Almás Stream encircling the castle was bulged to a castle lake by artificial dams. Its water was drained by penstocks first to the ditch of Old Town and onwards to the ditches of New Town, before returning to its natural course. Next to the second penstock, a mill was constructed as well. During thaw or after greater rainfalls the excess water was drained from the valley through spill-channels.

Literary accounts of the Siege of 1566 refer to the NE bastion of Old Town as Bagothai Bastion. One of the reports goes: ‘...also the third bastion of the city, located on the eastern side (Bagothai Bastion) was besieged and battered down together with the gate’.

The northern side of Old Town overlooking the castle was not protected by a wall, but with a mere row of stakes, so that the enemy who seized the city would not find cover. The city was connected to the castle through a long timber bridge. Its gangway was certainly guarded and a small house was built for the sentry. The circuitous nature of crossing the bridge is well documented in sources. Some argued, that it was faster to find a boat and row to the other side than cross the bridge.

The central square of the Old Town was mentioned in the census of 1651, it is actually a widening of the main road of the town. Though the road structure depicted on engineering plans of the 17th century shows the state of the Ottoman era, still it mustn’t have changed much since Zrinyi’s time. The more important streets of the Old Town were covered by roads made from timber, so carriages and carts could proceed easier on the swampy, muddy ground. The remains of this timber road were found at several archaeological excavations.

Numerous written sources mention the western gate of the Old Town, which opened to the road leading towards Pata village through the dam holding back the water of the lake.