Großbodungen Castle, also called Großbodungen Palace, is a former moated castle and later palace on the Haynröderbach (now Hagebach) in the center of the municipality of Großbodungen in the Eichsfeld district of Thuringia. The castle's watchtower (keep) is the landmark of Großbodungen. On January 21, 1461, Duke William III of Saxony, as Landgrave of Thuringia, enfeoffed the Counts of Hohnstein, Schwarzburg, and Stolberg, among others, with the towns and palaces of "Lare, Utterode, Elrich, Bodungen, and Blicherode."[1] This document is considered the first written mention of the castle, although its history goes back further.
The former moated castle was built in the 13th century by the local nobility, the Lords of Bodungen, as a fortified castle. In 1329, the family expanded the castle to include a stone house with a fireplace. By 1417 at the latest, the Lords of Bodungen, as ministerials to the Bishops of Mainz, had relinquished the castle and its associated fiefdom. The castle passed to the South Harz Counts of Hohnstein, who sold the castle and its associated estate in the 16th century to Hans Christoph von Berlepsch, a son of the Wartburg captain, Hans Sittich von Berlepsch, who had offered Martin Luther refuge at the Wartburg. Through extensive expansions, the von Berlepsch family gave the castle complex its architectural form, with a half-timbered courtyard, which has been preserved to this day. The castle entrance was relocated from the west to the east side; The cellar vault was also expanded and significantly enlarged.
In 1593, the Hohnstein line died out, and the castle passed into the possession of the Hohnstein-related counts and later princes of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. It served as a warehouse and economic administration. After the abdication of the last reigning prince, Günther von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt-Sondershausen (1852–1925), the castle became the property of the municipality of Großbodungen in 1920 during the Weimar Republic.
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