Reckahn Castle

The origins of the Reckahn estate date back to 1351, when it was first mentioned as property of the von Rochow family. An earlier fortified seat, Dusterreckahn, was destroyed by 1420 at the latest. On the present site, an "old manor house" with a Renaissance gable was built in 1605 for Tobias von Rochow. The current castle was constructed between 1726 and 1730 in Baroque style for Friedrich Wilhelm von Rochow, a Prussian Minister of War. His son, Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow, who took over the estate in 1760, became renowned for his agricultural and pedagogical reforms as well as his enlightened writings. After his childless death in 1805, the estate remained in the family's possession until 1945. Following its expropriation in 1946 and use as a school, the castle was restored and reopened in 2001 as the Rochow Museum and conference center.