Stadthagen is the capital of a country that no longer exists. For centuries, the town was the seat of the counts and princes of Schaumburg, a small state between Hanover and the Weser, and the Renaissance castle, built in the sixteenth century, still stands at the edge of the old town, with carved gables. The mausoleum of the princes, in the grounds of the St Martini church, is decorated with a bronze sculpture of the Resurrection by the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries, one of the masterpieces of its period in Germany.
The town has about twenty-three thousand people, and is a practical stop, with fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and cafes. The market square has a Renaissance town hall and many half-timbered houses, and coal mines operated here until the 1960s, a part of the town's past that is recalled in a small museum. The ridge of the Deister, a wooded range of hills, rises to the south, and Bückeburg, with its palace, lies a short ride to the west.
The roads around Stadthagen are flat to gently rolling, with farmland and woods, small villages and a calm atmosphere. This is the northern edge of the German uplands, and the roads head south toward the Deister and the Weser hills, climbing in gentle bends through beech woods. The surface is mostly good, though some of the minor roads are patched, and traffic is light.
The weather is mild, but changeable, with rain showers at any time of year, so carry a waterproof. Summer is warm and pleasant, and the autumn colours in the Deister are lovely. A coffee at one of the cafes on the market square, with a slice of local cake, is a good way to spend a break, and the town is quiet in the evening. If you walk out to the Deister edge, you will find old mining relics half hidden in the beech woods, and the contrast between the tidy town and the overgrown pits is oddly moving.