Excavations in the settlement of Rentina have brought to light important information about the inhabitants’ homes and workshops. Most homes abut the wall to the south and west, despite the advice given by Kekavmenos in his book Strategikon that a clear walkway should be maintained behind the wall for the free passage of soldiers and castle defenders. Free standing houses, i.e. those not in contact with other buildings, were built anywhere the terrain permitted.

A narrow paved road ran from the west gate, widening immediately after it to run past the houses erected on the hill base and on in front of others abutting the southern wall to end at the acropolis. A dirt road began at the point where the main road widened and ran to the northern part of the wall, while a third alley extended to the upper terrace.

The houses were rectangular, single-roomed affairs with one or two floors covered with saddleback or pitched roofs facing the street. They were low buildings, lower than the wall transepts . The ground floor homes served both as living quarters and workshops. When traces of exterior stairs indicated the existence of an upper floor it was used as a triklinos for the inhabitants, with the ground floor serving as a warehouse, store or workshop. The existence of jars wedged in the ground indicates that the lower rooms were used as warehouses. Rust, nails, tools, a number of vessels and, in two cases, workshop furnaces indicate that the ground floor housed forges or glass and ceramics workshops. The upper and ground floors would have been separated by a wooden floor. The external staircase led to a wooden balcony above, which rested on beams and had a loggia facing the street. The windows were single-light and arched.

Surveys outside the settlement walls point to the existence of houses on the west and south hill slopes, which may be those referred to in 13^th and 14^th century documents from Mount Athos monasteries.