Martinfeld Castle

Martinfeld Castle is located in the village of Martinfeld in Eichsfeld.

The castle was built in 1611 as the manor house of the ancient Thuringian noble family von Bodungen, who had settled in Martinfeld in 1518. It is a small castle with approximately 750 square meters of living space in the Renaissance style.

Structure
The castle is a three-story building with a gable roof and a half-hipped roof. Barrel-vaulted lucarnes are placed in front of the roof truss. A round stair tower with a three-part Welsch-style top (slate-clad) protrudes from the center of the south front. On the ground floor, there is a Renaissance portal with a volute gable and an inscription on the lintel. On the second upper floor, structural half-timbering with an emphasis on the tie-beam and sill zones through exposed beam ends projects outwards. Inside, there are extensive stucco works, parquet, and terrazzo floors.

History
The last owner of the manor from the noble family von Bodungen was Burchard von Bodungen (1900-1976), son of Werner von Bodungen. The castle remained in family ownership until its expropriation as part of the land reform in 1945 and was subsequently used as a youth hostel. The last owner, Burchard von Bodungen, lived in Göttingen after the Second World War and was active in the sugar beet industry from 1947. After reunification, the castle temporarily housed a youth guesthouse of the "Reit- und Freizeitzentrum Westerwald". The Thuringian regional association of the German Youth Hostel Association (DJH) took over the castle in 2000. After the castle was extensively renovated between 2001 and 2003, the hostel reopened in May 2003. In autumn 2007, the DJH ceased operations and returned the castle, which was held under hereditary lease, to its owner, the Free State of Thuringia.

In August 2008, the association "Schloss Martinfeld e. V.", founded in May of the same year by seven members of the German Scout Association to purchase the castle, acquired the castle to operate it as an international scout meeting place and free youth hostel. The hostel began operations in September 2008.