The ruins of the spur castle are located on the wooded ridge "Bodenwald" 232 meters above the lake level near Bodman (395 m above sea level), near the Bodenwald estate. The spur-like foothills on which the castle was built is 627 m above sea level. NHN. Large parts of the Überlinger See could be seen from there.
Today, the Alt-Bodman castle ruins can be reached via a forest path from Bodenwald or via a hiking trail from the valley towards Bodman.
The history of the castle begins around 1170 as the seat of the Lords of Bodman, imperial ministers of the Staufer.
Bodman Castle dates back to the 14th century, when its predecessor, the old castle on today's Frauenberg, was destroyed by lightning on September 16, 1307 during a family celebration 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, the one-year-old Johannes von Bodman, survived the catastrophe when the wet nurse put the child in a large cauldron and threw it out the window together with the child. The cauldron fell down the rocks, was slowed down by the bushes and finally got stuck.
The castle rebuilt under Johannes von Bodman, today's Bodman ruins, was completed in 1332 on a mountain opposite the Frauenberg.
On the site of the completely destroyed previous castle, the grandfather of the rescued man built a chapel with a priest's house, today's Frauenberg Monastery, and donated it to the Salem Monastery.
The castle was damaged during the Swiss War in 1499. It was later expanded militarily into a fortress. But it too fell victim to the Thirty Years' War.
During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was again destroyed on August 15, 1643 by French troops of the governor of Überlingen, General Count Charles Christophe de Mazencourt, Vicomte de Courval. He had the castle razed with allies from Württemberg. The noble family then settled in Espasingen Castle, and in 1760 they moved to Bodman Castle.
In 1851, Sigmund Freiherr von und zu Bodman decreed in his will that the ruins of Altbodman, including the outer bailey and core bailey with residential tower, were to be preserved. In 1900, Johann Otmar Graf von und zu Bodman initiated the first renovation measures, which became necessary due to cracking caused by lightning. 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 again 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 wildly growing shrubs blew up the walls and the weather and lightning caused the masonry to partially collapse. In 1997, the ruins were cleared of trees again by the owner, Wilderich Graf von und zu Bodman.
From late 2002 to early 2007, the Altbodman ruins were closed to the public. In 2003, the entrances were closed due to the increased danger 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 initially provided 120,000 euros in funding for the first construction phase. To protect against vandalism, the ruins were closed with a building door. The rehabilitation measures should be completed by 2009. The ruins have been open to the public again since spring 2007.
The ruins of the castle complex are very well preserved and were named "Monument of the Month July/August 2005" by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation.
The masonry of the castle Alt-Bodman has two construction phases, it combines both hump ashlar and brick and quarry stone construction. The main castle dates from the first construction phase between the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The residential tower and the Palas, the enclosing wall of the lower courtyard on the north and valley side, the front ward on the south and mountain side, the eastern ward, the wall of the upper ward in the west of the complex and the northern ward all fall into this construction phase.
In a second construction phase, flanking towers were extended and the front was built. It took place between the 14th and 17th centuries. The gatehouse in the lower courtyard in the north-west corner of the complex and the two flanking towers in the south-west and south-east corners were probably built in the late 15th century. A flanking tower in the north-east of the complex also dates from this second construction phase.
The inner bailey was preceded by a bailey on the south side. From the lower-lying outer bailey, one reached the former gatehouse via a ramp in the west below the main bailey. Parts of a retaining wall have survived to the east of the outer bailey. The outer bailey was further secured against the mountain ridge (Bodenwald) by means of an upstream neck ditch.
In addition to the remains of the wall, the 19.50 by 19.15 meter residential tower of the former main castle has also been preserved. In 1900, during the first renovation work, a viewing terrace was installed on the north-east corner of the residential tower.
At the point where the cauldron got caught during the fire of 1307, a memorial stone still commemorates this event. The cauldron 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.
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