Burg Stolzenau, Medieval castle ruins in Stolzenau, Germany.

Burg Stolzenau is a castle site near the Weser River, where foundations and traces of the former moat remain visible today. The remains show the typical layout of a medieval defensive fortress with an outer ward and main area positioned along the river.

Counts of Hoya built the fortress in 1346 as a border post facing the Schlüsselburg of the Bishops of Minden, four kilometres south. Between 1530 and 1569 it was rebuilt as a residence, using stone from demolished churches at Holzhausen, Leese and Schinna. Imperial troops destroyed the palace in 1627; only two service buildings survived.

The name Stolzenau is not explained in the sources; the castle itself is gone, and only two economic buildings survived its destruction in 1627. The site of the former castle grounds is now occupied by later buildings, including a school built in 1965 on the spot of the former Amtshaus. The von Münchhausen family's Freihof, established in 1378, still belongs to them today.

The castle itself has vanished; only the site and the later Amtshaus history remain, so there are no ruins, walls or moat to walk through. The former Amtshaus opposite the castle area was demolished in 1965 to make way for a Realschule. Look for the Freihof of the von Münchhausen family, which still belongs to them today.

The castle was first documented in 1370, when two castle fiefs were granted. On one of them the brothers von Mandelsloh built a castle-man's court in 1386; on the other the von Münchhausen family established a seat in 1378, and the resulting Freihof is still theirs today.