Schloss Fechenbach

Schloss Fechenbach stands beside the Main in eastern Collenberg, Unterfranken. Built in 1754–55 for Franz Gottlob von Reigersberg, it replaced an uninhabitable hilltop castle. The young nobleman worked with architect Johann Michael Fischer, a former assistant to Balthasar Neumann, who also served the Würzburg prince-bishop Karl Philipp von Greiffenclau. The building is a two-storey rectangle with a raised central pavilion under a mansard roof. Its sandstone walls carry rectangular windows, corner quoins and continuous friezes. The entrance is crowned by a large heraldic stone. A former square courtyard of red sandstone buildings once served as the estate’s service wing. Today the castle’s outer walls have been restored to their original plain finish. Inside, only the steel-and-concrete structure remains, leaving vast, empty rooms. To the north lie the remains of the symmetrical 18th- and 19th-century service buildings and the park’s tree-lined edge.