One widely known urban legend holds that a Turkish soldier can be glimpsed wearing a modern-day wristwatch. This has become one of the most oft-repeated "facts" about the film. In fact, no one has ever pinpointed where this supposed goof occurs, and a wristwatch can only be seen on behind-the-scenes photographs made during filming breaks.
Thousands of Turkish tents were erected. Set designer Endre Szász was forced to learn horse riding during production just to be able to inspect them all, since they were spaced so widely apart.
About five to six thousand infantrymen from the Hungarian People's Army were hired as extras for the grand battle scenes.
The third most-watched Hungarian film in history. In its home country of about 10 million people, it attracted 9.36 million viewers. It was only surpassed by Mágnás Miska (1949) (9.5 million viewers) and Men and Banners (1965) (9.38 million viewers). In comparison, even the most popular international movies struggle to reach over one million viewers in today's Hungary.
Filming around the castle of Eger was next to impossible, for it is located in the town of Eger in Hungary surrounded by buildings, unlike in the year 1552.
For filming the epic siege scenes, a smaller scale replica of the castle was built in the woodland area of the Pilis mountains of Hungary.
After the filming wrapped, the castle was kept as tourist attraction, and later appeared in other Hungarian films, such as Gyula vitéz télen-nyáron (1970) and recently in the Netflix series The Witcher (2019).