Horbruch

Horbruch
Coat of arms
Horbruch
Location of Horbruch within Birkenfeld district
Coordinates: 49°53′28″N 7°14′29″E / 49.89111°N 7.24139°E / 49.89111; 7.24139Coordinates: 49°53′28″N 7°14′29″E / 49.89111°N 7.24139°E / 49.89111; 7.24139
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Birkenfeld
Municipal assoc.	Rhaunen
Government
• Mayor	Klaus-Peter Hepp
Area
• Total	5.18 km2 (2.00 sq mi)
Elevation	455 m (1,493 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	341
• Density	66/km2 (170/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55483
Dialling codes	06543
Vehicle registration	BIR
Website	www.horbruch.de

Horbruch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhaunen, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

The municipality lies in the Hunsrück northwest of the 746 m-high Idarkopf. The municipal area is 44.3% wooded, and its elevation is 460 m above sea level.

Horbruch borders in the north on the municipality of Hirschfeld (Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis), in the east on the municipality of Krummenau and in the west on the municipality of Hochscheid (Bernkastel-Wittlich district).

Also belonging to Horbruch are the outlying homesteads of Bergmühle, Emmerichsmühle, Forsthaus Horbruch, Hockenmühle and Neumühle.

Archaeological digs have been undertaken at a number of barrows in the cadastral area known as the Feldmark, up from the Marienmühle (mill), dating from protohistoric times. Unearthed here were grave goods in the form of remnants of cutting and thrusting weapons as well as a few almost intact pieces of jewellery in typical Celtic ornamental style. Moreover, over on the north slope of the Idar Forest, not three kilometres from the village, in the Koppelbach’s headwaters, a temple, likewise from Celtic times, was dug up. This was dedicated to Sirona and was later expanded by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. Unearthed here were a votive altar and almost life-size statues of the healing goddess Sirona and the god Apollo Grannus. Once running by Horbruch’s southern outskirts was the most important overland link between the Roman towns of Augusta Treverorum (Trier) and Moguntiacum (Mainz). Another road, Bundesstraße 327, also called the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (“Hunsrück Heights Road”), is a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring’s orders; it runs parallel to the old Roman road.