The city is renowned for its well-preservedold town, its numerous architectural landmarks and its museums, among which is theUnterlinden Museum, which houses theIsenheim Altarpiece.
Colmar is located on theAlsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the capital of Alsatian wine (capitale des vins d'Alsace).
Colmar was first mentioned byCharlemagne in his chronicle about Saxon wars.[3] This was the location where theCarolingian EmperorCharles the Fat held adiet in 884.[4] Colmar was granted the status of afree imperial city by EmperorFrederick II in 1226.[3] In 1354 it joined theDécapole city league.[5] The city adopted theProtestant Reformation in 1575, long after the northern neighbours ofStrasbourg andSélestat.[6] During theThirty Years' War, it was taken by theSwedish 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.[7]
Colmar is 64 kilometres (40 mi) south-southwest ofStrasbourg, at 48.08°N, 7.36°E, on the River Lauch, a tributary of theIll. It is located immediately to the east of theVosges and connected to theRhine in the east by acanal.
Colmar has anoceanic climate (Köppen:Cfb) 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 sunnymicroclimate and is one of the driest cities in France, with an annual precipitation of just 607 mm (23.9 in), making it ideal forAlsace wine. It is considered the capital of the Alsatian wine region.
The dryness results from the town's location next to mountains, which forces clouds arriving from the west to rise and much of their moisture to condense and fall over the higher ground, leaving the air warmed and dried 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.
Comparison of local Meteorological data with other cities in France[16]
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Mostly spared from the destructions of theFrench Revolution and the wars of1870–1871,1914–1918 and1939–1945, the cityscape of old-town Colmar is homogenous and renowned among tourists. An area that is crossed by canals of the river Lauch (which formerly served as the butcher's, tanner's and fishmonger's quarter) is now called "littleVenice" (la Petite Venise).
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 (pink and yellowVosgessandstone,timber framing).
Église Saint-Martin – 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 desDominicains – 1289–1364. Now disaffected as a church, displaysMartin Schongauer's masterworkMadonna of the Rose Bower as well as 14th century stained glass windows and baroque choir stalls. The adjacentconvent 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 desAntonins – 13th century. Disaffected church and convent buildings notable for a richly ornate cloister. Now housing the Unterlinden Museum (see below).
Église Sainte-Catherine – 1371. Disaffected church and convent buildings now used as an assembly hall and festival venue (Salle desCatherinettes).
Chapelle Saint-Pierre – 1742–1750. Classicist chapel of a formerJesuit college.
Maison des têtesA replica ofThe Little Vintner of Colmar byFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi, given by the town of Colmar toPrinceton, its sister city, in 1988
Unterlinden Museum – one of the main museums in Alsace. Displays theIsenheim Altarpiece, a large collection of medieval, Renaissance and baroqueUpper-Rhenish paintings and sculptures, archaeological artefacts, design and international modern art.
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 andPolynesia, it also houses a collection of ancientEgyptian 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[24][25]
The Municipal Library of Colmar (Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar) owns one of the richest collections ofincunabula in France, with more than 2,300 volumes.[26] 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 localmonasteries,abbeys andconvents during theFrench Revolution and the subsequent gift of their collections to the town.
The railway stationGare de Colmar offers connections to Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Besançon, Zürich and several regional destinations. Colmar was also once linked toFreiburg im Breisgau, in Germany and on the other side of theRhine, by theFreiburg–Colmar international railway. However the railway bridge over the Rhine betweenBreisach andNeuf-Brisach was destroyed in 1945 and never replaced.
Colmar shares theUniversité de Haute-Alsace (Upper Alsace University) with the neighbouring, larger city ofMulhouse. Of the approximately 8,000 students of the UHA, around 1,500 study at theInstitut universitaire de technologie (IUT) Colmar, at the Colmar branch of theFaculté des Sciences et Techniques and at theUnité de Formation et de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire d'Enseignement Professionalisé Supérieur (UFR PEPS).
TheÉcole Compleméntaire Pour L'Enseignement Japonaise à Colmar (コルマール補習授業校Korumāru Hoshū Jugyō Kō), apart-time supplementary Japanese school, is held in Colmar.[27] At one time classes were held at theCentre Cultural de Seijo.[28]
Since 1980, Colmar is home to aninternational summer festival of classical musicFestival de Colmar (also known asFestival international de musique classique de Colmar). In its first version (1980 to 1989), it was placed under the artistic direction of the German conductorKarl Münchinger. Since 1989, it is helmed by the Russian violinist and conductorVladimir Spivakov.
Colmar: capital of Alsatian winesLiebherr in Colmar
Colmar is an affluent city whose primary economic strength lies in the flourishing tourist industry. But it is also the seat of several large companies:Timken (European seat),Liebherr (French seat),Leitz (French seat), Capsugel France (A division ofPfizer).
Every year since 1947, Colmar is host to what is now considered as the biggest annual commercial event as well as the largest festival in Alsace,[29] theFoire aux vins d'Alsace (Alsacian wine fair).
By 1991Lycée Seijo, a Japanese boarding high school inKientzheim, had established a Japanese cultural center. It housed books and printed materials in Japan and hosted lectures and film screenings.[31]
Colmar's cityscape (and that of neighbouringRiquewihr) served as inspiration for the design of the Japanese animated filmHowl's Moving Castle. Scenes in the animeIs the Order a Rabbit? are also based on this location.[34]
Colmar appears as a map inDay of Defeat: Source set in 1944. Germans and American soldiers try to blow up each other's objectives.[35]
^Helfferich, Tryntje, The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 290.
^Nathan Prefer (2015).Eisenhower's Thorn on the Rhine: The Battles for the Colmar Pocket, 1944-45. Casemate. p. 18.
^Dan P. Silverman (1971). "The Economic Consequences of Annexation: Alsace-Lorraine and Imperial Germany, 1871-1918".Central European History.4 (1). Cambridge University Press:34–53.doi:10.1017/S0008938900000431.JSTOR4545591.S2CID146411340.
^H. Patrick Glenn (1974). "The Local Law of Alsace-Lorraine: A Half Century of Survival".The International and Comparative Law Quarterly.23 (4). Cambridge University Press:769–790.doi:10.1093/iclqaj/23.4.769.JSTOR758414.
^Iwasaki, Toshio. "Japanese Schools Take Root Overseas."Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry.Japan Economic Foundation (JEF,Kokusai Keizai Kōryū Zaidan), No. 5, 1991. Contributed toGoogle Books by the JEF. p. 25. "Seijo Gakuen has established a cultural center in the nearby city of Colmar which is used to hold lectures introducing aspects of Japan, to show movies, and to keep books and printed materials oii Japan."
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