St. Andrésches Castle

The St. Andrésche Schlösschen is a manor house built in 1710 by the Barons of Saint-André in Kochendorf, a district of Bad Friedrichshall in the Heilbronn district in northern Baden-Württemberg. From 1829, the building belonged to the Bachert bell foundry and came into the possession of the city of Bad Friedrichshall in 1983, which renovated it after 1990.

At the site of the St. Andrésche Schlösschen once stood the Unterschloss, the third manor house of the Grecken, who held local rule in Kochendorf, after Greckenschloss and Schloss Lehen. In 1670/77, the Barons of Saint-André acquired a third of Kochendorf. Under Friedrich Magnus von Saint-André (1674–1731), the St. Andrésche Schlößchen was built on the site of the Unterschloss by 1710. The building displays the coat of arms of Friedrich Magnus and his wife Charlotte Louise von Weiler (1681–1756) above the portal. In 1762, the two surviving sons of the builder, Wolfgang Christoph (1713–1769) and Christian Reinhard (1715–1779), sold their Kochendorf property, with the exception of the so-called Pfaffenhaus, to the Odenwald Knightly Canton, which moved its chancellery to Kochendorf. In 1829, the building came into the possession of the Bachert bell foundry, which also erected other factory buildings in the vicinity. After the start of renovation in Kochendorf in 1978, the Schlößchen and factory buildings were separated. The factory premises were demolished and built over with residential houses, while the Schlößchen came into the possession of the city of Bad Friedrichshall in 1983. In 1987, the city considered selling it to a developer who intended to divide the building into individual residential units. The sale did not take place because the monument protection authority raised objections against a comprehensive redesign of the interior. The city itself renovated the building from 1990 onwards and has since used it for various municipal offices. Among the attractions inside the Schlößchen are the historic staircase and the Magnus-Friedrich-Saal, which features a stucco ceiling and high-quality parquet flooring.