Frauenberg Castle

Frauenberg Castle, also known as Frauenberg Palace, is a former castle of the Counts of Bodman near Bodman-Ludwigshafen in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Today it is used as Frauenberg Monastery by the Communitas Agnus Dei. The hilltop castle is located about 650 meters southwest of the church of Bodman on a spur of land projecting northwards, opposite the ruins of Altbodman.

The castle was built and repeatedly rebuilt by the Lords of Bodman, imperial ministerials of the Staufer dynasty, later called Counts of (and zu) Bodman.

Frauenberg Castle was originally the seat of the comital family until a lightning strike caused a fire during a family celebration on September 16, 1307. According to legend, the entire comital family and some members of the Hegau nobility perished in the fire. Among the victims were Conrad, Katharina, Adelheid and Anna von Bodman, Gottfried von Kreyen (Krähen), Heinrich von Blumegg and the knights Hans von Bodman and Hans von Schellenberg. Only the youngest male bearer of the family name, the one-year-old Johannes von Bodman, survived the catastrophe when his wet nurse put the child in a large cauldron and threw it, along with the child, out of the window. The cauldron plunged down the rocks, was slowed by bushes, and finally got stuck. The discovery site is now marked by a small obelisk.

After the fire, the grandfather of the rescued child built a chapel with a priest's house on the site of the completely destroyed Frauenberg Castle and donated it around 1308/09 to the Cistercian monastery of Salem for the salvation of the heir. The monastery expanded the burnt-down castle into Frauenberg Monastery. In 1515, construction work and a re-consecration took place; in 1610/11, the building was finally rebuilt again. In the course of secularization, the monastery returned to the possession of the comital family in 1806.

Today, the castle is still in comital possession and is inhabited by the Catholic religious community "Communitas Agnus Dei". Therefore, the old castle chapel is usually accessible during the day and can be visited by going up the entrance stairs to the first floor and walking down the corridor to the end. Attractions include Marian figures and a 15th-century Pietà.