Matzenbach

Matzenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Oberes Glantal. The municipality lies on the river Glan in the Western Palatinate. Rising above the village to the northeast is the Potzberg (562 m above sea level). The municipal area measures 705 ha, of which 202 ha is wooded. Matzenbach lies at the mouth of the Straubenbach where it empties into the Glan, on the river's right bank across from the neighbouring Ortsteil of Eisenbach at an elevation of 210 m above sea level. To the north lies the Ortsteil of Gimsbach. From the Glan valley outwards, the mountain slopes climb steeply to an elevation of 330 m above sea level. The Straubengrunderhof lies east of Matzenbach and the Langenbacherhof south (see Constituent communities below). While the Ortsteil of Matzenbach spreads out on the Glan's right bank, Eisenbach lies across the river on the left bank. Both centres are linked by a bridge. The rather busy Bundesstraße 423, too, runs along the right bank, so that Eisenbach on the other side of the river is spared any great volume of traffic. On the other hand, Eisenbach lies on the railway line, which is served by hourly trains running between Kusel and Landstuhl. Matzenbach is linked by simple Kreisstraßen to the neighbouring village to the south, Rehweiler, and to Godelhausen to the north, an outlying centre of Theisbergstegen. Eisenbach itself borders on each of these on the Glan's left bank. Gimsbach lies south of the Potzberg at the mouth of the Günsbach (or Gimsbach) where it empties into the Glan at an elevation of some 108 m above sea level. Towards the north, the land climbs steeply up to the Potzberg, and below the Potzberg's peak reaches the highest elevation within Matzenbach's municipal limits at 490 m above sea level. In the west, the municipal area is bordered by the Glan, while in the south is the former municipal limit with the Ortsteil of Matzenbach, now lo longer operative since the amalgamation.