Münchhausen Castle

Münchhausen Water Castle was built around 1560–61 by the married couple Börries von Münchhausen (1515–1583), Drost zu Lauenau, and Heilwig von Büschen-Oldendorf (1537–1599), who also began construction of the Münchhausen-Hof in Hessisch Oldendorf in 1583. (Börries' maternal uncle, the mercenary leader Claus von Rottorp, had built the neighboring Hülse Water Castle in 1548; Börries himself made his fortune as a cavalry captain in the mercenary army of his cousin, Colonel Hilmar von Münchhausen, particularly in 1557 at the Battle of St. Quentin.) In 1594, Börries and Heilwig's three sons divided the inheritance: Claus[5] received Apelern and Nienfeld, Otto Lauenau, and Ludolf the maternal inheritance in Oldendorf and Remeringhausen. The moated castle remains a residence of the Barons von Münchhausen, who have been settled in Apelern since 1370.