Colmar, Strasbourg

About Colmar

Colmar is Alsace's third-largest town after Strasbourg and Mulhouse. First mentioned in the 9th century, it became a free imperial city in 1226 and later joined the Décapole, a league of ten Alsatian towns. As everywhere in Alsace, French and German culture intertwine here, in its architecture, street names and food.

The old centre has barely changed in centuries: half-timbered houses painted blue, yellow, pink and green, tiled roofs, window boxes of flowers and cobbled lanes. Colmar sits on the Alsace Wine Route and calls itself the capital of Alsace wine, and its dry, sunny climate is among the warmest in the region.

What to see

• Little Venice — canals, colourful houses and boats.
• The Tanners' Quarter — tall half-timbered houses by the water.
• The Unterlinden Museum — the Isenheim Altarpiece.
• Maison des Têtes — a 1609 façade with a hundred masks.
• Maison Pfister — a Renaissance house with a 1537 gallery.
• Musée Bartholdi — the Statue of Liberty sculptor's birthplace.

Little Venice

Colmar's loveliest corner is Little Venice, the quarters along the canals of the River Lauch once home to butchers, tanners and fishermen. Gaily painted half-timbered houses stand right over the water, and flat-bottomed boats slip beneath willows and footbridges; a half-hour canal ride shows the town from its most picturesque angle.

Next door is the Tanners' Quarter, with tall houses whose lofts were once used to dry hides, and a fish market by the canal. The best views are from the bridge on Rue de Turenne, especially in the morning and the golden hour before sunset.

Old-town houses

Old Colmar is an open-air museum of architecture. The Koïfhus, the old customs house of 1480 with its glazed tile roof, is the town's main civic building. Maison Pfister of 1537, with its wooden gallery and paintings, is a gem of German Renaissance, and the 1609 Maison des Têtes is decorated with more than a hundred carved masks.

The 13th–14th-century Saint-Martin church is Colmar's largest, with early stained glass and a Baroque organ. As you walk, look out for fountains and monuments by Bartholdi, the Colmar native who created New York's Statue of Liberty. His birthplace is now a museum.

The Unterlinden Museum

The Unterlinden Museum occupies a 13th-century Dominican convent with a lovely cloister. Its treasure is the Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald and Nikolaus Hagenauer, from the early 16th century, one of the greatest works of German painting.

Beyond the altarpiece, the museum has medieval and Renaissance painting and sculpture of the Upper Rhine, archaeology and 20th-century art. Allow an hour and a half to two hours.

Tips for your visit

Give Colmar a full day: Little Venice and a boat in the morning, the old town and Unterlinden at midday, and a wine tasting in a cellar in the evening. Plenty of bistros serve Alsatian food: tarte flambée, choucroute and kougelhopf.

Colmar is an easy day trip from Strasbourg, after a visit to Strasbourg Cathedral and the centre. Along the wine route nearby lie the villages of Riquewihr and Eguisheim.

The cobbles are fairly even and the centre works with a pushchair, but the narrow streets get crowded in season. Colmar and neighbouring Riquewihr are said to have inspired the artists of Howl's Moving Castle.

How to do it right

• Boat in the morning.
• December markets.
• Wine in a cellar.
• 30 minutes by train.

Questions