Colmar


Colmar is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Alsace region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace, it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department and of the subprefecture of the Colmar-Ribeauvillé arrondissement.
Colmar was first mentioned in the 9th century and grew into an important medieval trading town within the Holy Roman Empire. In the 17th century it was annexed by France under Louis XIV, though it retained a distinct German character due to its location and culture. The city shifted between French and German control multiple times, before being permanently restored to France in 1945.
The city is known for its well-preserved old town, numerous architectural landmarks, its blend of French and German heritage and its museums, among which is the Unterlinden Museum, which houses the Isenheim Altarpiece.
Colmar is located on the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the capital of Alsatian wine.

History

Colmar was first mentioned by Charlemagne in his chronicle about Saxon wars. This was the location where the Carolingian Emperor Charles the Fat held a diet in 884. Colmar was granted the status of a free imperial city by Emperor Frederick II in 1226. In 1354 it joined the Décapole city league. The city adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1575, long after the northern neighbours of Strasbourg and Sélestat. During the Thirty Years' War, it was taken by the Swedish army in 1632, which held it for two years. In 1634, the Schoeman family arrived and started the first town library. In 1635, the city's harvest was spoiled by Imperialist forces while the residents shot at them from the walls.
The city was conquered by France under King Louis XIV in 1673 and officially ceded by the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen. In 1854 a cholera epidemic killed many in the city. With the rest of Alsace, Colmar was ceded to the newly formed German Empire in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War and incorporated into the Alsace-Lorraine province. It returned to France after World War I according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945. Colmar has been continuously governed by conservative parties since 1947, the Popular Republican Movement, the Union for French Democracy and the Union for a Popular Movement, and has had only three mayors during that time.
The Colmar Treasure, a hoard of precious objects hidden by Jews during the Black Death, was discovered here in 1863.

Geography

Colmar is south-southwest of Strasbourg, at 48.08°N, 7.36°E, on the River Lauch, a tributary of the Ill. It is located immediately to the east of the Vosges and connected to the Rhine in the east by a canal.
In 2022 the commune of Colmar had a population of 67,360, and the metropolitan area of Colmar had a population of 199,627. Colmar is the centre of the arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé.

Climate

Colmar has an oceanic climate but it is significantly modified by the city's location far inland, with cold, dry winters and warm to hot, wetter summers.
The city has a sunny microclimate and is one of the driest cities in France, with an annual precipitation of just, making it ideal for Alsace wine. It is considered the capital of the Alsatian wine region.
The town's dryness is due to its location near the mountains, which force clouds arriving from the west to rise. Most of their moisture condenses and falls over the higher ground, leaving the air warm and dry by the time it reaches Colmar.
The city therefore has more of a continental climate and winter and summer temperatures can sometimes be the lowest or highest in France.

Population

Main sights

Mostly spared from the destructions of the French Revolution and the wars of 1870–1871, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, the cityscape of old-town Colmar is homogenous and renowned among tourists. An area that is crossed by canals of the river Lauch is now called "little Venice".

Architectural landmarks

Colmar's secular and religious architectural landmarks reflect eight centuries of Germanic and French architecture and the adaptation of their respective stylistic language to the local customs and building materials.

Secular buildings

  • Maison Adolph – 14th century
  • Koïfhus, also known as Ancienne Douane – 1480
  • Maison Pfister – 1537.
  • Ancien Corps de garde – 1575
  • Maison des Chevaliers de Saint-Jean – 1608
  • Maison des Têtes – 1609
  • Poêle des laboureurs – 1626
  • Ancien Hôpital – 1736–1744
  • Tribunal de grande instance – 1771
  • Hôtel de Ville – 1790
  • Colmar prison – 1791, formerly a convent built in 1316.
  • Cour d'Assises – 1840
  • Théâtre municipal – 1849
  • Marché couvert – 1865. The city's covered market, built in stone, bricks and cast iron, still serves today.
  • Préfecture – 1866
  • Water tower – 1886. Oldest still preserved water tower in Alsace. Out of use since 1984.
  • Gare SNCF – 1905
  • Cour d'appel – 1906

    Religious buildings

  • St Martin's Church, Colmar – 1234–1365. The largest church of Colmar and one of the largest in Haut-Rhin. Displays some early stained glass windows, several Gothic and Renaissance sculptures and altars, a grand Baroque organ case. The choir is surrounded by an ambulatory opening on a series of Gothic chapels, a unique feature in Alsatian churches.
  • Église des Dominican Order – 1289–1364. Now deconsecrated as a church, displays Martin Schongauer's masterwork Madonna of the Rose Bower as well as 14th century stained glass windows and baroque choir stalls. The adjacent convent buildings house a section of the municipal library.
  • Église Saint-Matthieu – 13th century. Gothic and Renaissance stained glass windows and mural paintings, as well as a wooden and painted ceiling.
  • Couvent des Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony – 13th century. Deconsecrated church and convent buildings notable for a richly ornate cloister. Now housing the Unterlinden Museum.
  • Église Sainte-Catherine – 1371. Deconsecrated church and convent buildings now used as an assembly hall and festival venue.
  • Chapelle Saint-Pierre – 1742–1750. Classicist chapel of a former Jesuit college.
  • Synagogue – 1843

    Fountains

  • Fontaine de l'Amiral Bruat – 1864
  • Fontaine Roeselmann – 1888
  • Fontaine Schwendi – 1898

    Monuments

  • Monument du Général Rapp – 1856
  • Monument Hirn – 1894
  • Statue Les grands soutiens du monde − 1902
  • Statue of Liberty replica

    Museums

  • Unterlinden Museum – one of the main museums in Alsace. Displays the Isenheim Altarpiece, a large collection of medieval, Renaissance and baroque Upper-Rhenish paintings and sculptures, archaeological artefacts, design and international modern art.
  • Musée Bartholdi – the birthplace of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi shows his life and work through paintings, drawings, family objects and furniture as well as numerous plaster, metal and stone sculptures. A section of the museum is further dedicated to the local Jewish community's heritage.
  • Musée d'histoire naturelle et d'ethnographie – the zoological and ethnographic museum of Colmar was founded in 1859. Besides a large collection of taxidermied animals, and artefacts from former French and German colonies in Africa and Polynesia, it also houses a collection of ancient Egyptian items.
  • Musée du jouet – the town's toy museum, founded 1993.
  • Musée des usines municipales – industrial and technological museum in a former factory, dedicated to the history of everyday technology.
  • Choco-Story Colmar - museum presenting the history of chocolate, with regional history displays, the ability to taste different chocolates and artworks made of chocolate

    Library

The Municipal Library of Colmar owns one of the richest collections of incunabula in France, with more than 2,300 volumes. This is quite an exceptional number for a city that is neither the main seat of a university, nor of a college, and has its explanation in the dissolution of local monasteries, abbeys and convents during the French Revolution and the subsequent gift of their collections to the town.

Transport

The small regional Colmar Airport serves Colmar. The nearest international airports are EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg which is located 52 km away and Strasbourg Airport located 68 km away from Colmar.
The railway station Gare de Colmar offers connections to Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Besançon, Zürich and several regional destinations. Colmar was also once linked to Freiburg im Breisgau, in Germany and on the other side of the Rhine, by the Freiburg–Colmar international railway. However the railway bridge over the Rhine between Breisach and Neuf-Brisach was destroyed in 1945 and never replaced.

Education

Senior high schools in Colmar include:
  • Lycée Camille Sée
  • Lycée polyvalent Blaise Pascal
  • Lycée polyvalent Martin Schongauer
  • Lycée privé Saint-André
  • Lycée professionnel privé Saint-Jean
  • École privée Mathias Grunewald
Colmar shares the Université de Haute-Alsace with the neighbouring, larger city of Mulhouse. Of the approximately 8,000 students of the UHA, around 1,500 study at the Institut universitaire de technologie Colmar, at the Colmar branch of the Faculté des Sciences et Techniques and at the Unité de Formation et de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire d'Enseignement Professionalisé Supérieur.
The École Compleméntaire Pour L'Enseignement Japonaise à Colmar, a part-time supplementary Japanese school, is held in Colmar. At one time classes were held at the Centre Cultural de Seijo.

Music

Since 1980, Colmar is home to an international summer festival of classical music Festival de Colmar. In its first version, it was placed under the artistic direction of the German conductor Karl Münchinger. Since 1989, it is helmed by the Russian violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov.