Burg Frauenberg

Burg Frauenberg stands on a narrow spur of land 650 metres south-west of Bodman church. The spur juts northwards above the valley, facing the ruins of Altbodman across the way. Originally built by the Lords of Bodman in the 12th century, the fortress later became the seat of the Bodman counts. In 1307 a lightning strike set the castle ablaze during a family feast. The fire killed most of the nobility present, including Conrad, Katharina, Adelheid and Anna von Bodman, Gottfried von Kreyen, Heinrich von Blumegg and the knights Hans von Bodman and Hans von Schellenberg. Only the one-year-old Johannes von Bodman survived, lowered in a cauldron down the rock face. A small obelisk now marks the spot. After the disaster the child’s grandfather gave the ruined site to Salem Abbey, which rebuilt it as a priory in 1308–09. The Zisterzienserniederlassung Frauenberg still occupies the buildings today. Visitors enter up the stone stair to the first floor and walk the corridor to the old chapel. Inside are a late-medieval Pietà and several figures of the Virgin Mary. The surviving residential wing shows the original spur’s shape, its walls topped by a pitched roof with stepped gables. Outside, the view stretches across the valley to the Altbodman ruins and the Bodman hills beyond.