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The Red Tower is the less noticeable from Zvíkov’s towers. It has neither the fame and exclusivity of the Hlíza tower nor the outstanding location of the Watchtower. The four-sided building with a modern roof is almost lost under the horizon and in the surrounding vegetation and lacks any significant architectonic detail which would make it into a more interesting object. This fact seems to have influenced its publicity - in the accessible literature, its age is set between the 13th and 15th century, which is the reason why different opinions on its function in the defence of the castle exist.
The tower is about 8,5 meters wide, the height of the wall part is 20 meters, the walls are 2 meters thick and built from quarry stone. There used to be three entrances to the tower – the first one was in a height of about 6 meters on the east side and is nowadays bricked in, the second one is located a bit higher, accessible from the adjacent house, and on the west side, another bricked-in entrance to the outer walls and gallery can be seen. The bottom floor used to serve as a prison. The prisoners were lowered in there which is why the tower used to be called Hladomoří (the Oubliette). On the level of the second floor, a partly preserved cross vault is found. The tower burned out in 1751 and remained roofless until the beginning of the 20th century – that is also why, apart from small exceptions, the inner arrangement of the tower is absent. The ground floor is covered in rubble.
