Colmar

Colmar first appears in Charlemagne's chronicle of his wars against the Saxons, and by the Middle Ages it had grown into an important trading town of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1226 Emperor Frederick II made it a free imperial city, and much of the old town dates from the prosperous centuries that followed: the church of Saint-Martin, built between 1234 and 1365, the Dominican convent that now holds the Unterlinden Museum, and buildings such as the Koïfhus customs house of 1480 and the Maison Pfister of 1537.

The Reformation divided the town. During the Thirty Years' War posts in the government were shared equally between Catholics and Protestants, though Protestants made up two-thirds of the population. Louis XIV's armies took Colmar in 1673, and France kept it under the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1679. It produced two notable sons in the 19th century: General Jean Rapp, born in the Koïfhus, and the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty.

After the Franco-Prussian War Colmar was ceded with the rest of Alsace to the new German Empire in 1871. It returned to France after the First World War, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and was retaken only in February 1945, after German forces had held the "Colmar Pocket" in central Alsace through the winter. Having escaped serious damage in the French Revolution and in the wars of 1870–71, 1914–18 and 1939–45, the old town survived as a whole, and tourism has since become the town's main industry.

Colmar calls itself the capital of Alsatian wine, and wine shapes its calendar, its restaurants and the villages around it. Its cultural life centres on the Unterlinden Museum, home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, painted by Matthias Grünewald and carved by Nikolaus Hagenauer for the hospital monastery of the Antonine monks at Issenheim — a crucified Christ covered in sores that spoke directly to the sick in their care. The painter and engraver Martin Schongauer is represented by his Madonna of the Rose Bower in the deconsecrated Dominican church.

Bartholdi is everywhere: the house where he was born is a museum, and his statues stand on the Schwendi, Roesselmann and Bruat fountains and other monuments around the town, along with a replica of his Statue of Liberty. A section of the Bartholdi museum is devoted to the local Jewish community, whose synagogue dates from 1843. An international festival of classical music fills the churches and halls each summer, and the deconsecrated Catherinettes convent serves as a festival venue.

Like the rest of Alsace, Colmar mixes French and German traditions. Alsatian, in which the town is called Colmer, is the traditional local dialect. In late November and December, Christmas markets fill the old-town squares.

About 67,000 people lived in the commune in 2022, and about 200,000 in the metropolitan area, making it the third-largest commune in Alsace after Strasbourg and Mulhouse. It is the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin and hosts the assemblies of the European Collectivity of Alsace, even though Mulhouse is larger.

Colmar is an affluent town whose main economic strength is tourism, but it is also the seat of several large companies, including the European headquarters of Timken and the French headquarters of Liebherr and Leitz, and the civil hospitals employed about 3,700 people in 2018. The surrounding vineyards and the wine trade are part of the local economy, and the town owns its own wine estate, founded in 1895.

Life in the old town is busy with visitors from spring to the end of December, and quieter in the new year, when residents have the streets largely to themselves. The newer districts and villages around the town are residential, with cars and buses linking them to the centre and the vineyards beyond.

Colmar's restaurants serve the Alsatian classics. Choucroute garnie is sauerkraut with sausages and other salted meats and charcuterie, often with potatoes, and versions with fish exist, though they are far less typical. Tarte flambée, flammekueche in Alsatian, is bread dough rolled very thin and covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, sliced onions and lardons, then baked in a wood-fired oven.

The covered market of 1865 beside Little Venice returned to its original use as a food market after works begun in 2010, and its stalls sell local produce. In winter the Christmas markets serve mulled wine and a hot orange juice cooked with honey and spices.

Wine is the town's pride. Alsace labels its wines by grape, and the typical ones are Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Muscat and Pinot Noir, along with the sparkling Crémant d'Alsace. The town itself owns a wine estate, and growers in the villages around Colmar welcome visitors for tastings.