Grecken Castle

The Greckenschloss is a manor house built around 1600 by the Grecken von Kochendorf, a district of Bad Friedrichshall in the Heilbronn district in northern Baden-Württemberg. The main building has been used as a school for quite some time.

After the inheritance division of Wolf Conrad Greck I († 1598), the most significant share of property in Kochendorf, an imperial fief with the Lehen Castle renewed in 1553, fell to the eldest son Johann Philipp Greck, while the other two-thirds of the village were drawn by lot among the younger brothers Wolf Conrad Greck II and Walther Greck. Wolf Conrad II received, among other things, the Lindenberg east of the church, on which he had a manor house built over three years of construction, probably from 1599 to 1602, using forced labor. The actual two-winged castle building is located on the ridge, while two courtyards (Schlosshof and Meiereihof) extend westwards down the slope to the church. To the east, the complex is separated from the Lindenberg by a moat. Behind it was once a jousting arena.

The forced labor demanded for the construction of the castle aroused the displeasure of the subjects, whose complaints reached the Imperial Chamber Court. No verdict from this court is known, but in 1604 a contract was concluded between the local lords and the subjects, in which both parties committed to settling the dispute. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was damaged and subsequently renovated in 1681. Later, the building, like the rest of the village, came into the possession of the Knightly Canton of Odenwald, which established an chancellery and a school there.

In 1829/30, the castle passed into private hands. At times, a cigar factory, and later a liqueur factory, were housed there; the castle also served as a school and residential building. The Greckenschloss was named Monument of the Month October 2005 by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation. From 2004 to 2010, it underwent extensive renovation and has since been used by the Kochendorf primary school, a music school, and an art school.