Melsbach

Melsbach
Coat of arms
Melsbach
Location of Melsbach within Neuwied district
Coordinates: 50°29′27″N 07°28′42″E / 50.49083°N 7.47833°E / 50.49083; 7.47833Coordinates: 50°29′27″N 07°28′42″E / 50.49083°N 7.47833°E / 50.49083; 7.47833
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Neuwied
Municipal assoc.	Rengsdorf
Government
• Mayor	Holger Klein (FWG)
Area
• Total	2.80 km2 (1.08 sq mi)
Elevation	170 m (560 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	1,991
• Density	710/km2 (1,800/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	56581
Dialling codes	02634
Vehicle registration	NR
Website	www.gemeinde-melsbach.de

Melsbach is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is surrounded by the well-known air-spa of Rengsdorf.

Melsbach is in the midst of thick, lush forests. It is located at the southern border of the Westerwald region and thus often described as a "border village". Nearby municipalities include: Rengsdorf, Niederbieber, Oberbieber and Altwied. The current mayor of Melsbach is Holger Klein.

The first reference to the village's name occurs in 1267 as "Melszbach" as part of a county that the earl Gottfried von Eppstein, the Younger, had to sell away. In 1396, the "Kreuzkirche" (church-of-the-cross) chapel was built and first mentioned in 1399 in curatorial documents. The chapel belonged to the St. Thomas monastery (a woman's diocese) of Andernach and it was a famous pilgrimage destination from the beginning. Today, the ruins of the Kreuzkirche reside at the southern entrance to the village and have become a tourist attraction and popular panorama motif.

In 1789, vast clay fields were found, containing both white and colored clay rich in siderite. It was also discovered that the clay contained high amounts of precious alum. The alum mining lasted until 1880; clay mining lasted until the late 1960s. Today's "soccer hill" at the south entrance of Melsbach, opposite to the Kreuzkirche, is the result of a huge scree slope. Only a winding tower marks the place where the mines´ entrance once was. The tower has become a local emblem and can still be visited, though not climbed. The clay of Melsbach is described as "highly fireproof" and "of remarkable quality, often preferred for ceramic".

Despite its rich mineral resources, Melsbach was described as being "poor" in curatorial documents. In contrast to the neighbourhood municipality Altwied, Melsbach had to pay taxes. And even with the mines, Melsbach grew surprisingly slowly. Between 1753 and 1807, for example, only six new houses were built, and from 1840 and 1895, 22. In 1840, Melsbach counted 399 inhabitants; by 1895 it had 559 citizens. The increase of houses may have been the result of the mining, but oddly enough, the increase of inhabitants in neighbourhood towns, such as Niederbieber, Oberbieber and Rengsdorf was disproportionately higher. It is possible that most of the mine workers came from the surrounding towns.