Alterkülz

The municipality lies in the Külzbach valley, stretching strikingly along Landesstraße (State Road) 108, which is known locally as Hauptstraße (“Main Street”) where it actually passes through the village. Its length along this road has led to Alterkülz being called the “Longest Village in the Hunsrück”. Also belonging to the municipality is the outlying centre of Osterkülzmühle in the Osterkülz valley, southeast of the main centre.

Alterkülz's neighbours, by compass direction, are as follows:

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Alterkülz's mayor is Alfons Rockenbach.[2]

The German blazon reads: Im geteilten Schild oben in Schwarz ein aufspringender goldener Ziegenbock, beseitet von zwei goldenen Ähren, unten von Rot und Silber geschachtet, belegt mit schräggekreuzten schwarzen Schlägel und Hammer.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess sable a billygoat springing between two ears of wheat couped in base Or and chequy of twenty-four gules and argent a hammer and a sledge per saltire of the first.

The red and silver checkerboard pattern in the lower half of the escutcheon refers to the village's former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim and the Amt of Kastellaun. As early as 1283, Alterkülz was being mentioned in a few Sponheim documents (cule, kultze). The charge here, the hammer and sledge, recall the iron ore mining that was undertaken at the Grube Eid (mine) from 1780 (as it is established in historical records) until the First World War. The ears of wheat stand for agriculture, once every villager's occupation. Many lordships were enfeoffed here, the Sponheims, the Koppensteins, the Hunolsteins and the Bourscheids. The springing billygoat represents the outlying centre of Wehr, where the Wehrer Bick live, Bick being a local form of the German Böcke (“bucks”, “male animals”, and thus in this case, “billygoats”). The billygoat also graces the new town hall's roof.

The arms have been borne since 23 February 1981.[3]

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:

• Evangelical church, Hauptstraße 12 – bipolar aisleless church, marked 1759; whole complex of buildings with graveyard
• Saint Joseph’s Catholic Chapel (Kapelle St. Josef), Dorfstraße 79 – slate quarrystone aisleless church, 1920/1921, architect Marx, Trier; whole complex of buildings with graveyard
• Hauptstraße 11 – Evangelical rectory; building with half-hipped roof, partly slated timber framing, marked 1786, barn
• Hauptstraße 28 – building with hipped mansard roof, partly slated timber framing, marked 1816, barn; whole complex of buildings
• Hauptstraße 30 – building with hipped mansard roof, partly slated timber framing, marked 1811, barn; whole complex of buildings
• Hauptstraße 31 – estate complex; timber-frame house, partly solid, hipped mansard roof, about 1900, timber-frame barn
• Hauptstraße 46 – building with hipped mansard roof, partly slated timber framing, early 19th century, barn, partly timber-frame; whole complex of buildings
• Near Hauptstraße 48 – warriors’ memorial 1914-1918; complex with sandstone relief slab, 1926
• Hauptstraße 109 – building with hipped mansard roof, partly slated, Swiss chalet style, 1922
• Laubacher Straße 10 – L-shaped estate; timber-frame house, plastered, 18th century, commercial wing[4]

• 
  Hauptstraße 12: Evangelical church
• 
  Hauptstraße 31: estate complex
• 
  Near Hauptstraße 48: warriors’ memorial 1914-1918

Among others, there are a large steel building firm, a carpentry company specializing in building conservatories, a masonry business, an inn and several agricultural businesses. On a hill east of the village stands a wind farm with seven wind turbines made by Vestas.