City of arts: Colmar

Colmar is located in the Alsace territory, in north eastern France, not far from the German border, approximately halfway between Strasbourg and Basel, at the foot of the Vosges. The city boasts some 65,000 inhabitants.

The oldest recording in writing of the city dates back to the 9th century. In the Middle Ages Colmar was a prominent free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Originally a German city, from around 1675, Colmar, like the rest of the Alsace, belonged to France. And with exception of the years 1871-1918 and 1940-1945, it remained that way.

Art & culture

Points of interest in addition to the well preserved old city centre, with its renaissance buildings, its many framed houses and shopping areas, are:

Dominican Church (Église des Dominicains), with its painting Madonna of the Rose Garden by a son of city of Colmar Martin Schongauer.
Musée d'Unterlinden, where you will find the famous Isenheimer altar by Matthias Grünewald as well as a Stations of the Cross by Schongauer.
The parental home of sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Three fountains in Colmar have statues made by Bartholdi.