Burg Bodenteich, Medieval castle in Bad Bodenteich, Germany.
Burg Bodenteich is a former moated castle on an oval earth mound 4–5 m high and 50–60 m wide, with a trapezoidal outer bailey to the southwest. Its surviving buildings, rebuilt after 1520, include a brick Amtshaus with a half-timbered annex, a bakehouse and a brewhouse. The square brick bergfried, once about 30 m tall, was largely dismantled after the 1808 town fire and now stands 8.5 m high with a viewing platform at 4.5 m.
The Lords of Bodendike built the fortress around 1250 to serve as a strategic defensive center for their lands. The site remained a seat of power for successive ruling families throughout the centuries.
The name Bodenteich comes from the noble family von Bodendike, first recorded around 1145 with Theoderico de Bodendiche. Today the restored complex hosts shooting festivals, Christmas markets, concerts, exhibitions, baking days and medieval markets, and houses the spa administration and the castle museum.
The surviving keep is 8.5 m high, with a viewing platform at 4.5 m reached by a short climb; there is no glass dome. The grounds are used for events such as shooting festivals, Christmas markets and medieval markets, and house the spa administration and the castle museum.
The former office building on the castle mound now houses the spa administration and the castle museum. Excavations in its cellar uncovered the remains of a round keep eight metres in diameter with two-metre-thick fieldstone walls, dated by pottery to the mid-13th century.
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