Kusel, Germany

Kusel lies on the Kuselbach in Rhineland-Palatinate's southwest, in the North Palatine Uplands roughly 30 km northwest of Kaiserslautern. The Kuselbach rises in the outlying centre of Diedelkopf where the Bledesbach and the Pfeffelbach (or Aalbach) meet. The dale is hemmed in by a row of mountains, on the left bank the Ödesberg (375 m), and on the right the Gaisberg (355 m), the Roßberg (314 m) and the Herrchenberg (385 m). The floor of the dale lies roughly 220 m above sea level. Prominent landmarks just beyond the town's limits are Lichtenberg Castle to the west and the Remigiusberg (368 m) and the Potzberg (562 m) to the east. With roughly 5,000 inhabitants, Kusel challenges Cochem for the title of Germany's smallest district seat.

Kusel borders in the north on the municipalities of Körborn and Blaubach, in the northeast on the municipality of Altenglan, in the east on the municipality of Rammelsbach, in the southeast on the municipality of Haschbach am Remigiusberg, in the south on the municipality of Schellweiler, in the southwest on the municipality of Ehweiler, in the west on the municipality of Pfeffelbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Ruthweiler.

Given the town's central location, many markets were held in Kusel even as far back as the Middle Ages, although these often had to put up with stiff competition from other traditional markets in other nearby places. The town's economic life in the late 18th century was characterized by many small craftsmen's workshops. There were wool and linen weavers, doublet and hose knitters, clothmakers and hatters as well as walking mills and gristmills, tanneries and several breweries. At the same time, dealers travelling overland from the town did a brisk trade with these products. In the age of industrialization, few of these craftsmen managed to expand their workshops or to switch to new, effective production methods.

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

Saint Giles’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Ägidius), Lehnstraße 10 – Gothic Revival pseudobasilica, sandstone-block building, 1887–1889, architect Franz Schöberl, Speyer; furnishings

Protestant parish church, Marktplatz 2 – Classicist sandstone-block building, 1829–1831, architect Ferdinand Beyschlag, Kaiserslautern, tower helm 1861, architect Johann Schmeisser, Kusel; furnishings, Stumm organ from 1848

Bahnhofstraße 22 – three-floor Late Historicist living and commercial house with gated driveway, 1900

Bahnhofstraße 25 – stately Late Historicist corner house with mansard roof, 1899

Bahnhofstraße 28/30 – former “Pfälzer Hof”; three-floor sandstone-framed plastered building with stone-block-faced ground floor, 1896; in the yard remnants of the former beergarden buildings; characterizes town's appearance

Bahnhofstraße 55 – Historicist clinker brick building on stone-block-faced ground floor, Renaissance Revival motifs, 1888

Bahnhofstraße 58 – lavishly decorated Baroque Revival villa with mansard roof, 1902, architect K. Herrmann, Kusel

Bahnhofstraße 59 – former Royal Bavarian Rentamt (financial administration office); Historicist stone-block building with hipped roof, 1894/1895, architect Bauamtmann Stempel, Kaiserslautern