Oberweiler im Tal

Oberweiler im Tal
Coat of arms
Oberweiler im Tal
Location of Oberweiler im Tal within Kusel district
Coordinates: 49°34′50.43″N 7°32′59.22″E / 49.5806750°N 7.5497833°E / 49.5806750; 7.5497833Coordinates: 49°34′50.43″N 7°32′59.22″E / 49.5806750°N 7.5497833°E / 49.5806750; 7.5497833
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Kusel
Municipal assoc.	Lauterecken-Wolfstein
Government
• Mayor	Manfred Braun
Area
• Total	4.71 km2 (1.82 sq mi)
Elevation	220 m (720 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	157
• Density	33/km2 (86/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	67756
Dialling codes	06304
Vehicle registration	KUS

Oberweiler im Tal 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 Lauterecken-Wolfstein.

In the south at the municipal limit with Eßweiler stands a ruined castle, the Sprengelburg, which was built about 1300.

Oberweiler im Tal, in the North Palatine Uplands, lies in the Eßweiler Tal (dale) at an elevation of some 205 m above sea level against the backdrop of the Königsberg to the east, up from a narrowing in the dale where the water from the Jettenbach flows down a steep slope onto the flatter land on the floor of the dale. Within Oberweiler’s limits, the 568-metre Königsberg’s outliers reach heights of more than 500 m above sea level. The hills on the dale’s left bank, which rise up towards the Herrmannsberg’s 536 m-high peak to the west, reach heights of some 350 m above sea level within Oberweiler’s limits. The municipal area measures 461 ha, of which 108 ha is wooded and roughly 10 ha is settled.

Oberweiler im Tal borders in the north on the municipality of Hinzweiler, in the east on the municipality of Aschbach, in the south on the municipality of Eßweiler and in the west on the municipality of Horschbach.

Oberweiler im Tal lies in the Eßweiler Tal on Landesstraße 372, which runs north-south along the brook’s left bank here. Oberweiler is a linear village (by some definitions, a “thorpe”) with a few sidestreets branching of the main street up into small side dales, and with rather loosely spread building, although the built-up area towards the north end is a bit more tightly packed. Here, during the 19th century, a small residential area grew up over on the brook’s right bank. All together, there was little or no expansion of the village’s built-up area in the 20th century. Former farmhouses often still bear the features of an Einfirsthaus (“house with a single roof ridge”), also known as a Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street). The graveyard lies in the village’s north on the left side of the road. To the south, west of the road at the brook’s steep bank and partly within Eßweiler’s limits, stand the ruins of the Sprengelburg (also called the Springeburg), a castle that was once the seat of the Lords of Mühlenstein, vassals to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach.