Altbodman ruins

Altbodman ruins
	Altbodman ruins - photo from the south
Alternative name (s):	Bodman Castle, Old Bodman
Creation time :	1309 to 1332
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Imperial Ministerials, Counts
Construction:	Humpback blocks, bricks, rubble stone
Place:	Bodman
Geographical location	47 ° 47 '40.3 " N , 9 ° 1' 55.8" E Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '40.3 " N , 9 ° 1' 55.8" E
Height:	627 m above sea level NHN

The Altbodman Castle , also spelled Alt-Bodman , is a high medieval castle ruin southeast of Bodman in the municipality of Bodman-Ludwigshafen in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany .

Geographical location

The ruins of the Spornburg are located on the wooded ridge "Bodenwald" 232 meters above lake level near Bodman ( 395 m above sea level ), near the Bodenwald estate. The spur-like spur on which the castle was built is located at 627 m above sea level. NHN . From there, large parts of the Überlinger See could be seen.

Today the Alt-Bodman castle ruins can be reached via a forest path from the direction of Bodenwald or via a hiking path from the valley towards Bodman.

history

The history of the castle begins around 1170 as the seat of the Lords of Bodman , Reich ministeriale of the Hohenstaufen .

Bodman Castle dates back to the 14th century when its predecessor, the old castle on today's Frauenberg, was destroyed on September 16, 1307 during a family festival after a lightning strike and members of the noble family and some members of the Hegau nobility perished in the subsequent fire . Among the victims were Conrad, Katharina, Adelheid and Anna von Bodman, Gottfried von Kreyen (crows), Heinrich von Blumegg and the knights Hans von Bodman and Hans von Schellenberg. Only the youngest male bearer of the gender name, the one-year-old Johannes von Bodman, survived the catastrophe when the nurse put the child in a large cauldron and threw it and the child out of the window. The kettle tumbled down the rocks, was braked by the bushes, and finally got stuck.

The castle rebuilt under Johannes von Bodman, today's ruins of Bodman, was completed in 1332 on a mountain opposite the Frauenberg.

At the site of the completely destroyed previous castle, the rescued man's grandfather built a chapel with a priestly house, today's Frauenberg monastery , and donated it to Salem monastery .

The castle was damaged during the Swiss War in 1499. It was later expanded into a military fortress. But she too fell victim to the Thirty Years' War .

During the Thirty Years War, the castle was destroyed again on August 15, 1643 by French troops from the governor of Überlingen , General Count Charles Christophe de Mazencourt , Vicomte de Courval. He left with allied Wurttembergers the castle on 15 August 1643 grind . The aristocratic family then settled in Espasingen Castle, and in 1760 they moved to Bodman Castle .

In 1851, Baron Sigmund von und zu Bodman decreed in his will that the Altbodman ruins, including an outer and core castle with a residential tower, should be preserved. Johann Otmar Graf von und zu Bodman initiated the first renovation measures in 1900, which became necessary due to cracking caused by lightning strikes. He had the damaged parts of the wall repaired and the viewing terrace built. Another minor renovation followed in 1922.

In 1956, Dr. Johannes Graf von und zu Bodman carried out extensive conservation measures to secure the ruins, with the advice and support of the State Monuments Office in Freiburg. It was renovated because wild shrubbery blew up the walls and the weather and lightning strikes caused the masonry to collapse in parts. In 1997 the owner Wilderich Graf von und zu Bodman cleared the ruins of trees again.

The Altbodman ruins were closed to the public from the end of 2002 to spring 2007. In 2003 the entrances were closed due to the increased risk of individual parts of the wall collapsing in order to protect the public from falling rocks. For this purpose, Wilderich Graf von und zu Bodman commissioned the Überlingen architects Haro Kraus with the renovation and invested around 1.5 million euros. The work was coordinated with the monument authority in Freiburg. The Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation has initially provided 120,000 euros in funding for the first construction phase. To protect against vandalism, the ruin was closed with a building door. The renovation measures should be completed by 2009. The ruin has been open to the public again since spring 2007.

Building description

Hall

The ruin of the castle complex is quite well preserved and was named " Monument of the Month July / August 2005" by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation.

The masonry of Alt-Bodman Castle has two construction phases, it combines both humpback as well as brick and quarry stone construction. The core castle dates from the first construction phase between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. This construction phase includes the residential tower and the palas , the surrounding wall of the lower courtyard on the north and valley sides, the front kennel on the south and mountain sides, the eastern kennel, the wall of the upper courtyard in the west of the complex and the northern kennel.

In a second construction phase, flanking towers were expanded and built in front . It took place between the 14th and 17th centuries. The gatehouse in the lower courtyard in the northwest corner of the complex and the two flanking towers in the southwest and southeast corner were probably built in the late 15th century. A flanking tower in the northeast of the facility also comes from this second construction phase.

The main castle was preceded by a bailey on the south side . From the lower outer bailey one reached the former gatehouse via a ramp in the west below the inner bailey. In the east of the outer bailey, parts of a retaining wall were preserved. The outer bailey was also secured against the mountain ridge (soil forest) by means of an upstream neck ditch .

In addition to the remains of the wall, the 19.50 by 19.15 meter residential tower has been preserved from the former main castle. In 1900 during the first renovation work, a viewing terrace was installed on the northeast corner of the residential tower.

At the place where the boiler got caught during the fire of 1307, a memorial stone still commemorates this event. The kettle can be seen in the castle. The Lords of Bodman are the only noble family in the Lake Constance area that has remained settled to this day.

literature

Heike Tausendfreund: Forgotten at the castle. Investigation of the archaeological finds from the Altbodman castle ruins . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 124th year 2006, pp. 67–91. ( Digitized version )
Walter Laufenberg: pride and storm . Historical novel. Ubstadt-Weiher 2005, ISBN 3-89735-448-9 .
Rudolf Martin: News about the medieval castles of Bodman In: Hegau , 61st year 2004, pp. 195–204.
Günter Schmitt : Alt-Bodman In: Palaces and castles on Lake Constance. Volume I - western section: From Murach to Arenenberg . 1st edition. Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach 1998, ISBN 3-924489-94-7 , pp. 100-113.
Helmut Bender, Karl-Bernhard Knappe, Klauspeter Wilke: Castles in southern Baden . 1st edition. Verlag Karl Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 1979, ISBN 3-921340-41-1 , pp. 9-14.
Otto Piper : About the castle ruins in the club area, especially the Altbodman ruins . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 20th year 1891, pp. 31–43. ( Digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Ruine Altbodman - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Altbodman castle ruins

Individual evidence

↑ other source around 1277
↑ Press release ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 55 kB) of July 13, 2005 by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation

contents