Castle Szigetvár

The famous siege of the island in 1566 and the heroic breakout of Miklós Zrínyi with his loyal soldiers took place in Szigetvár. The exhibition in the renovated castle presents our reconstruction models, which are meant to represent the four construction periods of the castle. The earliest form of the castle was a rectangular knight’s castle built by Antheminus Oswald, a member of the Anthemi family, presumably of Greek origin, and a tower built at its corner, estimated to be 24 meters high. This was later surrounded by the irregular quadrangular fortification divided into an inner and an outer castle. The remains of the former Gothic knight’s castle form a separate defense zone in the inner castle, which is separated from the outer castle by a moat. This fortification is joined by a long bridge, the Old Town with its palisade walls raised from soil, lined with moats, and the New Town with its weaker palisade. After the Turkish siege, the castle was rebuilt several times and new buildings were added. The Ottoman conquerors built mosques and rebuilt the bastions from bricks. After the recapture, the Habsburg armies renovated the castle, its walls were rebuilt from bricks, modernized with a casemate system. Visitors to Szigetvár can see this state of the building complex today. The reconstruction was carried out under the expert supervision of Gergely Buzás, József Kelenik, István Pánya, Balázs Sudár and Tamás Pusztai.