Bedesbach

Bedesbach
Coat of arms
Bedesbach
Location of Bedesbach within Kusel district
Coordinates: 49°33′57″N 7°27′26″E / 49.56583°N 7.45722°E / 49.56583; 7.45722Coordinates: 49°33′57″N 7°27′26″E / 49.56583°N 7.45722°E / 49.56583; 7.45722
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Kusel
Municipal assoc.	Altenglan
Government
• Mayor	Peter Koch
Area
• Total	4.43 km2 (1.71 sq mi)
Elevation	200 m (700 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	791
• Density	180/km2 (460/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	66885
Dialling codes	06381
Vehicle registration	KUS
Website	www.bedesbach.de

Bedesbach 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 Altenglan, whose seat is in the like-named municipality. Bedesbach is also a state-recognized tourist resort.

The municipality lies in the Kusel Musikantenland (“Minstrels’ Land”) in the Western Palatinate on the river Glan. Bedesbach lies on the river’s right bank, across from Patersbach over on the left bank, at an elevation of roughly 200 m above sea level. The mountains that edge the valley reach elevations of about 400 m above sea level (Sulzberg 402 m, Hohenestel with cabin and lookout tower 399 m, Bächelskopf 357 m). The Sulzbach, which rises east of the village at the Birkenhübel (298 m), flows along a short course, emptying into the Glan downstream from the village. The municipal area measures 443 ha, of which 44 ha is wooded.

Bedesbach borders in the north on the municipality of Ulmet, in the east on the municipality of Welchweiler, in the south and west on the municipality of Altenglan and in the northwest on the municipality of Erdesbach. Bedesbach also meets the municipality of Sankt Julian at a single point in the northeast.

Also belonging to Bedesbach is the outlying homestead of Sulzbacher Hof.

The core of this village, which was originally a small clump village, lies on a low, flat elevation at the valley’s edge, an expanse of land that is somewhat shielded against flooding. In this part of the village, the old houses built for farming still stand out clearly. In the expansions before the Second World War down the valley and back from the river towards the mountains, a mixture of building forms arose. After the war, farther down the valley in the bow of the Sulzbach and on the mountain slope (Schleidchen), a new, looser housing development was built with many single-family dwellings, and a few multiple-family dwellings. Small industrial facilities are built into the residential area. Village renewal and property boundary rationalization (a kind of Flurbereinigung called Ortslagenflurbereinigung) were also undertaken to promote tourism. Bedesbach has several times been the district-level winner in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our village should become lovelier”).