Colmar

File:Colmar (Haut-Rhin) - Hôtel de ville (48 rue des Clefs).jpg]]

Colmar was first mentioned by Charlemagne in his chronicle about Saxon wars.{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Colmar | title=Colmar | publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica | access-date=24 June 2019}} This was the location where the Carolingian Emperor Charles the Fat held a diet in 884.{{cite book |last1=BRAEUNER |first1=Gabriel |title=Colmar "Un Itinéraire à travers l'Histoire" |date=2005 |isbn=9782913302563 |page=60}} Colmar was granted the status of a free imperial city by Emperor Frederick II in 1226. In 1354 it joined the Décapole city league.G. Köbler, Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder, 7th edition, C.H. Beck, Munich, 2007. The city adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1575, long after the northern neighbours of Strasbourg and Sélestat.{{cite web | url=https://www.tourisme-colmar.com/en/visit/presentation/history | title=The History of Colmar in 20 key dates | access-date=25 June 2019}} 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.Helfferich, Tryntje, The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 290.

The city was conquered by France under King Louis XIV in 1673 and officially ceded by the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen.{{cite book | title=Eisenhower's Thorn on the Rhine: The Battles for the Colmar Pocket, 1944-45 | publisher=Casemate | author=Nathan Prefer | year=2015 | pages=18}} 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.{{cite journal | title=The Economic Consequences of Annexation: Alsace-Lorraine and Imperial Germany, 1871-1918 |journal = Central European History|volume = 4|issue = 1| publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=1971 | author=Dan P. Silverman | pages=34–53|jstor = 4545591|doi = 10.1017/S0008938900000431| s2cid=146411340 }} It returned to France after World War I according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles,{{cite journal | title=The Local Law of Alsace-Lorraine: A Half Century of Survival |journal = The International and Comparative Law Quarterly|volume = 23|issue = 4|pages = 769–790| publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=H. Patrick Glenn|jstor = 758414|year = 1974|doi = 10.1093/iclqaj/23.4.769}} was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945.{{cite web | url=https://www.tourisme-colmar.com/en/visit/presentation/history/detailed-chronology/166-from-1918-to-1945-the-inter-war-period-and-hardships-time | title=From 1918 to 1945 - The inter-war period and hardships time | access-date=25 June 2019}} Colmar has been continuously governed by conservative parties since 1947, the Popular Republican Movement (1947–1977), the Union for French Democracy (1977–1995) and the Union for a Popular Movement (since 1995), and has had only three mayors during that time.{{cite web |title=Les maires de Colmar depuis la Révolution française |url=http://etienne.biellmann.free.fr/colmar/fr/maires.htm |website=etienne.biellmann.free.fr |access-date=24 September 2019}}

The Colmar Treasure, a hoard of precious objects hidden by Jews during the Black Death, was discovered here in 1863.Campbell Marian, "Treasures of the plague", September 2007

Colmar is {{convert|64|km|mi|0}} 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 2017 the city had a population of 69,105,{{cite web |url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/4265439/dep68.pdf |title=Populations légales en vigueur à compter du 1er janvier 2020 |publisher=INSEE |access-date=2 January 2020 }} and the metropolitan area of Colmar had a population of 199,234 in 2018.{{cite web |url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1405599?geo=AAV2020-058 |title=Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Colmar (058)|publisher=INSEE |access-date=16 June 2022 }} Colmar is the centre of the arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé, which had 211,312 inhabitants in 2017.

Colmar has an oceanic 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 sunny microclimate and is one of the driest cities in France, with an annual precipitation of just {{convert|607|mm|abbr=on}}, making it ideal for Alsace 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.

{{Meteo France

|Town=Colmar

|Sunshine= 1,780.7

|Rain=606.6

|Snow=25.7

|Storm=24.8

|Fog=55.4{{cite web|url=https://www.lameteo.org/index.php/12-climatologie/1599-normales-climatiques-1981-2010-colmar|title=Normales climatiques 1981-2010 : Colmar|website=www.lameteo.org|access-date=15 June 2022}}

}}

{{Colmar weatherbox}}

{{Historical populations

| align = none

| cols = 2

| percentages = pagr

| source = EHESS{{Cassini-Ehess|9899|Colmar}} and INSEE (1968-2017)[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-68066#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

| graph-pos = bottom

|1793 |13000

|1800 |11933

|1806 |14465

|1821 |14300

|1831 |15442

|1836 |15958

|1841 |19908

|1846 |20050

|1851 |21348

|1856 |21284

|1861 |22629

|1866 |23669

|1871 |23311

|1875 |23990

|1880 |26106

|1885 |26537

|1890 |30399

|1895 |33146

|1900 |36844

|1905 |41791

|1910 |43808

|1921 |42255

|1926 |43167

|1931 |46518

|1936 |49448

|1946 |46124

|1954 |47305

|1962 |52355

|1968 |59550

|1975 |64771

|1982 |62483

|1990 |63498

|1999 |65136

|2007 |66560

|2012 |67257

|2017 |69105

}}

File:Colmar (31617330537).jpg

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 (which formerly served as the butcher's, tanner's and fishmonger's quarter) is now called "little Venice" ({{lang|fr|la Petite Venise}}).

File:Maison Pfister Colmar 2011-04.jpg.]]

File:Martinsmünster Colmar Vordere Seitenansicht.jpg ({{lang|fr|Église Saint-Martin}})]]

File:Vierge au Buisson colmar.jpg's Madonna of the Rose Bower inside the Église des Dominicains]]

File:FR Colmar 20080828 005.jpg

File:Bartoldi-Museum.JPG

File:Château d'eau, Colmar.jpg

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 yellow Vosges sandstone, timber framing).

• Maison Adolph – 14th century (German Gothic)
• Koïfhus, also known as Ancienne Douane – 1480 (German Gothic)
• Maison Pfister – 1537 (German Renaissance).
• Ancien Corps de garde – 1575 (German Renaissance)
• Maison des Chevaliers de Saint-Jean – 1608 (German Renaissance)
• Maison des Têtes – 1609 (German Renaissance)
• Poêle des laboureurs – 1626 (German Baroque)
• Ancien Hôpital – 1736–1744 (French Classicism)
• Tribunal de grande instance – 1771 (French Classicism)
• Hôtel de Ville – 1790 (French Classicism){{Base Mérimée|PA00085373}}
• Colmar prison – 1791, formerly a convent built in 1316.
• Cour d'Assises – 1840 (French Neoclassicism)
• Théâtre municipal – 1849 (French Neoclassicism)
• Marché couvert – 1865 (French Neo-Baroque). The city's covered market, built in stone, bricks and cast iron, still serves today.
• Préfecture – 1866 (French Neo-Baroque)
• Water tower – 1886. Oldest still preserved water tower in Alsace. Out of use since 1984.
• Gare SNCF – 1905 (German Neo-Baroque)
• Cour d'appel – 1906 (German Neo-Baroque)

• {{lang|fr|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.
• {{lang|fr|Église des Dominicains}} – 1289–1364. Now disaffected 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.
• {{lang|fr|Église Saint-Matthieu}} – 13th century. Gothic and Renaissance stained glass windows and mural paintings, as well as a wooden and painted ceiling.
• {{lang|fr|Couvent des Antonins}} – 13th century. Disaffected church and convent buildings notable for a richly ornate cloister. Now housing the Unterlinden Museum (see below).
• {{lang|fr|Église Sainte-Catherine}} – 1371. Disaffected church and convent buildings now used as an assembly hall and festival venue ({{lang|fr|Salle des Catherinettes}}).
• {{lang|fr|Chapelle Saint-Pierre}} – 1742–1750. Classicist chapel of a former Jesuit college.
• Synagogue – 1843 (Neoclassicism)

• {{lang|fr|Fontaine de l'Amiral Bruat}} – 1864 (Statue by Bartholdi)
• {{lang|fr|Fontaine Roeselmann}} – 1888 (Statue by Bartholdi)
• {{lang|fr|Fontaine Schwendi}} – 1898 (Statue by Bartholdi)

• {{lang|fr|Monument du Général Rapp}} – 1856 (first shown 1855 in Paris. Statue by Bartholdi, his earliest major work)
• {{lang|fr|Monument Hirn}} – 1894 (Statue by Bartholdi)
• Statue {{lang|fr|Les grands soutiens du monde}} − 1902 (in the courtyard of the Bartholdi Museum)
• Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) replica

File:Maison des Têtes 2.jpg

File:The Little Vintner of Colmar by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (Princeton replica).jpg, given by the town of Colmar to Princeton, its sister city, in 1988]]

• 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.
• {{lang|fr|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.{{cite web|title=Un fonds d'art juif trop méconnu|url=http://www.dna.fr/actualite/2016/08/18/un-fonds-d-art-juif-trop-meconnu-(diaporama)|publisher=dna.fr|access-date=18 August 2016}}
• {{lang|fr|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.
• {{lang|fr|Musée du jouet}} – the town's toy museum, founded 1993.
• {{lang|fr|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{{cite web |title=Choco Story Colmar |url=https://www.choco-story-colmar.fr/?lang=en |access-date=20 February 2024}}{{cite web |title=Chocolate museum of Colmar – My opinion on Choco Story |url=https://www.my-weekend-in-alsace.com/choco-story-colmar/ |website=My Weekend in Alsace |access-date=20 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240220233850/https://www.my-weekend-in-alsace.com/choco-story-colmar/ |archive-date=20 February 2024}}

The Municipal Library of Colmar ({{lang|fr|Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar}}) owns one of the richest collections of incunabula in France, with more than 2,300 volumes.{{cite web |title=Résultats de la recherche |url=https://bibliotheque.colmar.fr/opac/catalog/search?allfields%5B%5D=Incunable |website=bibliotheque.colmar.fr |access-date=31 January 2025}} 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.

The small regional Colmar Airport serves 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.

{{expand section|date=April 2015}}

Senior high schools in Colmar include:

• {{Interlanguage link multi|Lycée Bartholdi (Colmar)|fr|3=Lycée Bartholdi|lt=Lycée Bartholdi}}
• 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 {{lang|fr|Université de Haute-Alsace}} (Upper Alsace University) with the neighbouring, larger city of Mulhouse. Of the approximately 8,000 students of the UHA, around 1,500 study at the {{lang|fr|Institut universitaire de technologie}} (IUT) Colmar, at the Colmar branch of the {{lang|fr|Faculté des Sciences et Techniques}} and at the {{lang|fr|Unité de Formation et de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire d'Enseignement Professionalisé Supérieur}} (UFR PEPS).

The École Compleméntaire Pour L'Enseignement Japonaise à Colmar (コルマール補習授業校 Korumāru Hoshū Jugyō Kō), a part-time supplementary Japanese school, is held in Colmar."[https://web.archive.org/web/20140330190146/http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/clarinet/002/006/001/002/004.htm 欧州の補習授業校一覧（平成25年4月15日現在）]" (). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Retrieved on 10 May 2014. "Chateau Kiener 24, rue de Verdun, 68000 Colmar, FRANCE" At one time classes were held at the Centre Cultural de Seijo."[https://web.archive.org/web/20030102205506/http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/clarinet/heurope.html 欧州の補習授業校一覧]" (). MEXT. 2 January 2003. Retrieved on 7 April 2015. "（学校所在地） Centre Cultural de Seijo 28 rue Schulumberger 68000 COLMAR, FRANCE"

Since 1980, Colmar is home to an international summer festival of classical music {{lang|fr|Festival de Colmar}} (also known as {{lang|fr|Festival international de musique classique de Colmar}}). In its first version (1980 to 1989), 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.

File:Colmar capitale vins1.JPG

File:Liebherr colmar.jpg 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 of Pfizer).

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,{{Cite web|url=http://www.foire-colmar.com/dn_LhistoriquedelaFoireauxVins/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013174849/http://www.foire-colmar.com/dn_LhistoriquedelaFoireauxVins/|url-status=dead|title=History of the Wine fair|archive-date=13 October 2008}} the Foire aux vins d'Alsace (Alsacian wine fair).

When Air Alsace existed, its head office was on the grounds of Colmar Airport."World Airline Directory." Flight International. 13 February 1975. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1975/1975%20-%200295.html?search=%22Air%20Alsace%22 247].

By 1991 Lycée Seijo, a Japanese boarding high school in Kientzheim, had established a Japanese cultural center. It housed books and printed materials in Japan and hosted lectures and film screenings.Iwasaki, Toshio. "Japanese Schools Take Root Overseas." Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry. Japan Economic Foundation (JEF, Kokusai Keizai Kōryū Zaidan), No. 5, 1991. Contributed to Google 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."

File:Jean Rapp 3.jpg

File:Armand Joseph Bruat, amiral de France (1796-1855).jpg

File:Auguste Nefftzer 1863 (IZ 40-268).jpg

• Caspar Isenmann (1410? – 1484?), painter
• Martin Schongauer (1450–1491), painter and engraver
• Georg Wickram (1502–1562), poet and novelist
• Jean-François Rewbell (1747–1807), diplomat and revolutionist
• Jean Rapp (1771–1821), lieutenant general
• Conrad Berg (1785–1852), composer
• Charles Xavier Thomas (1785–1870), inventor
• Marie Bigot (1786–1820), musician, pianist and composer, friend of Haydn and Beethoven
• Armand Joseph Bruat (1796–1855), admiral
• Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès (1812–1895), politician, killer of Alexander Pushkin in a duel
• Auguste Nefftzer (1820–1876), journalist
• Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), sculptor. He created Liberty Enlightening the World (the Statue of Liberty).
• Camille Sée (1847–1919), politician
• Jean-Baptiste Lemire (1867–1945), composer
• Jean-Jacques Waltz (1873–1951), drawer and caricaturist
• Ernst Stadler (1883–1914), Alsatian poet
• Paul Wormser (1905–1944), Olympic épée fencer
• Hans Loewald (1906–1993), psychoanalyst and theorist
• Jean-Pierre Muller (1924–2008), Olympic epee fencer
• Bernard Schmitt (economist) (1929–2014), economist and founder of the "Quantum Economics"
• Christian de Chergé (1937-1996), Trappist monk and one of the Tibhirine monks
• Guy Roux (born 1938), football coach
• Pierre Moerlen (1952–2005), musician, drummer and composer
• Pierre Hermé (born 1961), confectioner, entrepreneur and pastry chef
• Thomas Bloch (born 1962), musician
• Éric Straumann (born 1964), politician
• Pascal Elbé (born 1967), actor, director and screenwriter
• Marc Keller (born 1968), football player
• Cendrine Wolf (born 1969), children's author
• Pascal Johansen (born 1979), football player
• Nicolas Armindo (born 1982), racing driver
• Amaury Bischoff (born 1987), football player
• Fabien Schmidt (born 1989), professional cyclist
• Ryad Boudebouz (born 1990), Algerian-French footballer

{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in France}}

Colmar is twinned with:{{cite web |title=Colmar et les villes jumelées|url=https://www.colmar.fr/colmar-villes-jumelees|website=colmar.fr|publisher=Colmar|language=fr|access-date=2021-03-28}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• {{flagicon|GER}} Schongau, Bavaria, Germany (1962)
• {{flagicon|ITA}} Lucca, Italy (1962)
• {{flagicon|USA}} Princeton, United States (1986)
• {{flagicon|HUN}} Győr, Hungary (1993)
• {{flagicon|BEL}} Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (1962)
• {{flagicon|ENG}} Vale of White Horse, England, United Kingdom (1978)
• {{flagicon|AUT}} Eisenstadt, Austria (1983)

{{div col end}}

Bukit Tinggi Resort Colmar Tropicale which is situated in Bentong district, State of Pahang, Malaysia is a resort-theme historical village inspires from the original Colmar commune in France. Colmar Tropicale located 60 km north-east of Kuala Lumpur.

North of it, a rebuild of Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg is in the Berjaya Hills, hosting an organic resort hotel.{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/reise/Fern/article132642408/China-hat-jetzt-ein-Schlosshotel-Neuschwanstein.html|title=Schloss-Double : China hat jetzt ein Schlosshotel Neuschwanstein - WELT|newspaper=DIE WELT|access-date=2017-02-22|date=26 September 2014}}

Colmar's cityscape (and that of neighbouring Riquewihr) served as inspiration for the design of the Japanese animated film Howl's Moving Castle. Scenes in the anime Is the Order a Rabbit? are also based on this location.{{Cite web|url=https://infinitemirai.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/colmar-france-home-of-gochuumon-wa-usagi-desu-ka/|title=Colmar, France: Home of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?|date=1 November 2015}}

Colmar appears as a map in Day of Defeat: Source set in 1944. Germans and American soldiers try to blow up each other's objectives.{{cite web|last1=Valve|author1-link=Valve Corporation|title=Official Day of Defeat: Colmar Trailer|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edMba7fC6FE|website=youtube.com|language=en|format=video|date=February 12, 2009}}

{{Portal|France}}

• List of mayors of Colmar

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Colmar}}

{{Wikivoyage}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090427042818/http://www.ville-colmar.fr/ Official website of the city of Colmar]
• [http://www.domaineviticolecolmar.fr/ Wine domain of the city of Colmar]
• [http://www.ot-colmar.fr/ Tourist office of Colmar]
• [http://www.festival-colmar.com/ Colmar Music Festival]

{{Décapole}}

{{Prefectures of departments of France}}

{{Haut-Rhin communes}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Communes of Haut-Rhin

Category:Décapole

Category:Free imperial cities

Category:Populated places established in the 9th century

Category:Prefectures in France