Frauenstein Castle, Medieval castle in Mining, Austria

Frauenstein is a castle in the municipality of Mining, Upper Austria, above the Inn. Of the former extensive complex only the gate tower with its tower house and part of the 1508 perimeter wall survive. West of it stand a two-storey manor house of tuff stone with round portals and pilasters, built in the early 19th century, and a former granary. A ditch cut from the rock forms an artificial arm of the Inn.

Gregor von Pogen built the castle during the 10th-century Hungarian invasions. From 1296 to 1377 it was pledged to the Counts of Hals; in 1400 Knight Heinrich Weckhinger sold it to Wilhelm von Fraunhofen, who rebuilt it and gave it the name Frauenstein. Duke Heinrich the Rich of Lower Bavaria bought it in 1435 and joined it to Ering. Plundered in the War of the Bavarian Succession, it was sold in 1508 to the Paumgartner family, who rebuilt parts of it between 1508 and 1519 and held it until 1885.

The castle's name comes from Wilhelm von Fraunhofen, who bought the building in 1400, rebuilt it and renamed it Frauenstein. Since 1999 the association "Lebenswertes Frauenstein" has leased the castle and revived it; today the Burgschänke inn occupies the early 19th-century Herrenhaus, and a medieval festival with the knightly society Tempus Rapax is held here.

The grounds are best explored on foot, with marked paths around the outside of the castle. Visitors should bring appropriate clothing as the area can be windier and cooler, especially in the higher seasons.

The dam of the Ering-Frauenstein hydroelectric plant, built 1939–1942, is open to pedestrians and cyclists, so visitors arriving by bike along the Unterer Inn nature reserve can return on the Bavarian bank of the river.