Colmar

France Updated Oct 2026

In Colmar, France, the Lauch slips beneath rows of pastel timber houses, their reflections broken by willow branches and the slow passage of flat-bottomed boats. A few streets inland, the Isenheim Altarpiece confronts visitors with a very different kind of beauty: a startling, many-paneled vision painted between 1512 and 1516.

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Colmar, France Photo: sinava-- from Berlin · CC BY 2.0
Attractions
10
Audio
5 h 58 min
Trip length
2–3 days
Best season
May–June and September–October

Why Colmar

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Colmar’s old center rewards looking up and looking twice. The Pfister House, built in 1537, layers painted biblical scenes, a wooden gallery and an octagonal turret above the street; nearby, the Koïfhus, completed in 1480, recalls the city’s former role in Alsatian trade.

The altarpiece is the heart of the Musée Unterlinden, housed in a 13th-century Dominican convent and extended with a modern wing by Herzog & de Meuron. Its painted panels were made for a hospital monastery, where their images of suffering and healing spoke to patients with Saint Anthony’s Fire.

Colmar is also a working wine town: Riesling, Gewurztraminer and other Alsatian varieties appear on winstub tables alongside tarte flambée and Munster cheese. The covered market brings that daily life to the canal, while Christmas and spring markets add seasonal stalls to the old squares; the town’s prettiest views make more sense once you see the commerce and craft behind them.

  • A masterpiece in a convent

    At the Musée Unterlinden, the Isenheim Altarpiece pairs Grünewald’s fever-bright panels with carved figures by Niclaus of Haguenau. Made between 1512 and 1516 for a hospital monastery, it was meant to comfort people suffering from ergotism; the restored panels still feel startlingly alive.

  • Timber, stone, and painted façades

    In the old center, Renaissance houses crowd narrow lanes: Maison Pfister dates to 1537, while Maison des Têtes wears 106 carved faces. Look up in the Tanners’ District, where open upper floors once let hides dry in the air.

  • Canals with working-class roots

    La Petite Venise’s pastel façades line the Lauch, but this was once a district of market gardeners, fishermen, and boatmen. From Pont Saint-Pierre, the canal bends beneath willows and timbered houses; small electric boats follow the same waterway.

  • A town at the heart of Alsace wine

    Colmar sits on the Alsace Wine Route, with vineyard villages such as Eguisheim and Kaysersberg close enough for an easy day trip. September brings harvest-season energy, and a glass of Riesling tastes different after you’ve seen the foothills where its grapes grow.

Places to Visit

Not every monument, just the ones we'd walk you past ourselves.

All 12 places in Colmar

Neighborhoods

Where to wander, by quarter — each with its own rhythm.

  • La Petite Venise

    Along the Lauch, half-timbered houses crowd the canal on the Quai de la Poissonnerie, once the working waterfront of fishermen, boatmen and market gardeners. Walk the banks for close-up views, or take an electric boat from Pont Saint-Pierre to see the façades from the water.

  • Vieux Colmar and Grand Rue

    The old center gathers the Pfister House, the Koïfhus and narrow lanes lined with wine cellars, pastry shops and traditional taverns. Look through the archways on Rue des Marchands for inner courtyards and carved wooden stair towers tucked behind the street fronts.

  • Quartier des Tanneurs

    Tall 17th- and 18th-century houses line the canal here, with open timbered lofts once used to dry animal hides. Their high, practical upper floors tell a less polished story than the pastel waterfront nearby.

  • Unterlinden and Place des Dominicains

    This quieter cultural quarter centers on the former Dominican convent that houses the Musée Unterlinden, with the Dominican church close by. After the galleries, the surrounding streets offer cafés and wine bars without the canal-side crowds.

Plan your trip

Before you go

Getting There
EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg (BSL/MLH/EAP) is about 55–60 km south; in 2026, take Distribus Line 11 to Saint-Louis SNCF, then a TER train to Gare de Colmar. Strasbourg Airport (SXB) connects by shuttle train to Strasbourg-Ville, then TER to Colmar; the main road approaches are the A35 north–south and A36 via Mulhouse.
Getting Around
Colmar has no metro or tram—zero subway lines—and TRACE runs the local bus network; its free electric Navette Cœur de Ville links the station, parking areas, and historic center about every 15 minutes. 2026 guide fares list a single ticket at about €1.50 and a 24-hour TRACE pass at €3.60; the Alsa+ Colmar Agglo day ticket is about €5, while the seven-day Colmar City Pass costs about €48 and includes museums, a canal ride, and a tourist train. The flat old center is easiest on foot, and cycle tracks connect with the Alsace Wine Route path; bike hire typically runs €18–€30 per day.
Climate & Best Time
Typical temperatures run about 2–21°C in spring, 13–27°C in summer, 3–22°C in autumn, and −1–8°C in winter; the Vosges shelter Colmar, which gets roughly 600 mm of rain a year, with showers tending to increase in May and June. May–September suits canal trips and cycling, while September and October bring harvest color and milder days; late November and December are the crowded Christmas-market peak, so book early, and January–March are quieter.
Language & Currency
French is the official language; Alsatian remains part of the region’s heritage, and English is common in hotels, restaurants, and major museums. The currency is the euro, cards are widely accepted, and a quick “Bonjour” before asking for help is the local courtesy that opens doors.

03 Top tickets in Colmar.

Book ahead

Curated from places in this city. Same price as official sites.

Unterlinden Museum: Entry Ticket
Unterlinden Museum
Unterlinden Museum: Entry Ticket
★4.6 from €14
Colmar Discovery Pack: self-guided tour + 6 local items
St Martin'S Church, Colmar
Colmar Discovery Pack: self-guided tour + 6 local items
★4.7 from €65
Colmar Scavenger Hunt and Sights Self-Guided Tour
St Martin'S Church, Colmar
Colmar Scavenger Hunt and Sights Self-Guided Tour
★4.2 from €9.99
Colmar Scavenger Hunt and Highlights Self Guided Audio Tour
St Martin'S Church, Colmar
Colmar Scavenger Hunt and Highlights Self Guided Audio Tour
★4.1 from €5.59
Museum Entrance Ticket Unterlinden
Unterlinden Museum
Museum Entrance Ticket Unterlinden
★4.4 from €14
Statue of Liberty, Wine and War Self Guided Tour of Colmar
Unterlinden Museum
Statue of Liberty, Wine and War Self Guided Tour of Colmar
★4.2 from €6.61

Prices shown are indicative — final pricing and availability are confirmed at checkout. Audiala may receive a commission from bookings made via these links.

Colmar Between Empire and Republic

A Rhine-side town whose rulers changed more often than its streets

  1. c. 5000 BCE

    The Earliest Traces

    Archaeological finds from the Upper Rhine plain point to farming communities here thousands of years before Colmar appears in writing. They mark human presence in the wider area, not a securely identified foundation date for the town itself.

  2. 823

    Columbarium Enters the Record

    On June 12, Emperor Louis the Pious issued a deed granting part of the royal forest of Columbarium to the Abbey of Munster. The name, usually translated as “dovecote,” is the first written trace of Colmar.

  3. 1226

    A Free Imperial City

    Emperor Frederick II raised Colmar to the status of a Free Imperial City, placing it directly under imperial authority rather than a local lord. The town gained room to govern itself—and a reason to guard that liberty fiercely.

  4. 1235–1365

    Saint Martin Rises in Stone

    Builders worked for more than a century on the Gothic collegiate church of Saint Martin, shaping its warm yellow-pink sandstone into pointed arches and a broad nave. The church still anchors the old town, though locals call it a cathedral despite its never having held that rank.

  5. 1262

    Roesselmann Defends the City

    Provost Johannes Roesselmann led Colmar’s militia against the forces of Walter of Geroldseck, the Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg. The attack was repelled, but Roesselmann died in the fighting; his defense became a lasting emblem of the city’s hard-won liberties.

  6. 1348–1349

    Plague and Persecution

    The Black Death reached Alsace amid a wave of anti-Jewish violence, and Jewish communities were attacked across the region. The Colmar Treasure, a cache of jewelry and coins discovered centuries later, is thought to have been hidden during this fearful period.

Show the full timeline (30 moments)
  1. 1354

    The Décapole Takes Shape

    Colmar joined nine other Alsatian imperial cities in the Décapole, a league for mutual defense and shared interests, ratified by Emperor Charles IV on August 28. Its members met in Colmar’s civic buildings, where trade and politics shared the same tables.

  2. c. 1445

    Schongauer’s Colmar Workshop

    Born in Colmar around this year, Martin Schongauer became a painter and engraver whose finely worked prints circulated far beyond Alsace. His workshop helped make the town a center of northern European art, and his images later drew Albrecht Dürer to Colmar.

  3. 1480

    The Customs House Opens

    The Koïfhus, or Old Customs House, was completed as a place to store goods, collect duties, and conduct civic business. Its patterned glazed roof tiles still signal the wealth Colmar drew from trade.

  4. 1512–1516

    An Altarpiece Takes Shape

    Matthias Grünewald painted the panels of the Isenheim Altarpiece while Niclaus of Haguenau carved its figures for the Antonite monastery at Isenheim, south of Colmar. Its raw images of suffering and healing would later become the defining treasure of Colmar’s Unterlinden Museum.

  5. 1537

    The Pfister House Appears

    Hatter Ludwig Scherer commissioned the house now known as the Maison Pfister, a Renaissance residence with corner oriel windows, a wooden gallery, and painted biblical scenes. Look up from the street and the timberwork seems to lean over the passerby.

  6. 1575

    Protestant Worship Permitted

    On May 14, Colmar’s council formally allowed Protestant worship, bringing the Reformation into a city long shaped by Catholic institutions. Religious life changed by council decision, not by a sudden remaking of every church and household.

  7. 1609

    A Façade of Faces

    Merchant Anton Burger built the Maison des Têtes, whose façade bristles with 106 carved heads and grotesque masks. The bronze cooper perched on its roof came much later, sculpted by Colmar-born Auguste Bartholdi in 1902.

  8. 1632

    Swedish Troops Take Colmar

    During the Thirty Years’ War, Swedish forces under Field Marshal Gustaf Horn captured Colmar on December 19. Their occupation lasted until 1634 and restored Lutheran influence in the city’s churches, while war kept ordinary life under strain.

  9. 1648

    France Claims Alsace

    The Peace of Westphalia transferred Habsburg rights in Alsace to the French Crown, though Colmar and the other Décapole cities continued to dispute what that meant for their freedoms. The treaty changed the map before it settled the question of who truly ruled the town.

  10. 1673

    The Walls Come Down

    French troops entered Colmar on August 28, and Louis XIV ordered the city disarmed. Around 4,000 royal sappers then dismantled its medieval fortifications, leaving the once-protected town open to the French Crown.

  11. 1679

    Colmar Becomes French

    The Treaties of Nijmegen formally ceded Colmar and the Décapole to France, ending the city’s status as a Free Imperial City. Imperial emblems disappeared from public buildings; French royal symbols took their place.

  12. 1698

    A Provincial Judicial Capital

    Louis XIV made Colmar the seat of the Sovereign Council of Alsace, bringing the province’s highest court to town. Lawyers, officials, and litigants now filled streets once dominated by merchants and guild business.

  13. 1706

    Fire Hits the Fishmongers’ Quarter

    A fire destroyed 40 timber houses in the Fishmongers’ Quarter beside the Lauch. The district was rebuilt, so the picturesque canal-side streets carry traces of both medieval trade and later reconstruction.

  14. 1753

    Voltaire Works in Colmar

    Voltaire arrived in Colmar in October and spent more than a year consulting the Sovereign Council’s archives and private libraries for his history of the German Empire. In the quiet work of reading legal papers, the famously sharp writer found material for a different kind of argument.

  15. 1790

    Haut-Rhin’s New Prefecture

    Revolutionary France made Colmar the chief town of the newly created Haut-Rhin department. A city once governed through imperial privileges and royal courts now served a republic’s administrative map.

  16. 1834

    Bartholdi Is Born Here

    Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born in Colmar, in a house on Rue des Marchands that now bears his name as a museum. His later designs included the Statue of Liberty, but his hometown keeps closer company with his smaller monuments, fountains, and models.

  17. 1853

    Unterlinden Opens as a Museum

    The former Dominican convent opened as the Unterlinden Museum, and the Isenheim Altarpiece was brought to Colmar for preservation and display. In the dim church interior, Grünewald’s painted panels gave the city’s medieval art a public home.

  18. 1871

    Annexed to the German Empire

    The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on May 10 after the Franco-Prussian War, transferred Colmar and Alsace to the German Empire. German rule lasted 47 years, and questions of language and political belonging became part of everyday life.

  19. 1873

    Hansi Draws an Alsace Divided

    Jean-Jacques Waltz, later known as Hansi, was born in Colmar under German imperial rule. His illustrations and caricatures became pointed expressions of Alsatian attachment to France, turning familiar streets and village scenes into political commentary.

  20. November 1918

    French Troops Return

    French military units entered Colmar after the Armistice of Compiègne, ending German imperial rule in the city. The Treaty of Versailles formally restored Alsace to France the following year, after decades in which borders had shaped private loyalties as well as public signs.

  21. 1940

    Nazi Germany Annexes Alsace

    After France’s defeat, Nazi Germany took control of Alsace and imposed German language and administration in Colmar. Young Alsatians were forced into the Wehrmacht, many against their will; families remember them as the Malgré-nous, “those forced against our will.”

  22. February 2, 1945

    Colmar Is Liberated

    French and American forces fought through the Colmar Pocket in bitter winter conditions, liberating the city on February 2. The wider battle continued until February 9, but Colmar’s old town escaped with comparatively little structural damage.

  23. 2004

    Liberty Returns in Miniature

    A 12-meter replica of the Statue of Liberty was installed at Colmar’s northern entrance, marking the centenary of Bartholdi’s death. The sculptor’s far-flung gift to New York thus acquired a smaller, local echo beside the road into his birthplace.

  24. 2015

    Unterlinden Gets a New Wing

    The Unterlinden Museum reopened after a major expansion designed by Herzog & de Meuron, linking the former convent to new exhibition rooms. The change gave Colmar’s collections more room while keeping the Isenheim Altarpiece at the center of the story.

Who lived here

  • Sculptor · 1834–1904

    Auguste Bartholdi

    Born in Colmar

    Bartholdi was born in Colmar in 1834; the house on Rue des Marchands where he was born now holds a museum devoted to his work. A 12-meter Statue of Liberty replica at the city’s northern entrance makes his legacy part of the everyday approach to town.

Where to Eat

Where locals actually book dinner — not the tourist menus.

Insider tips

Small things that change how the city treats you.

  • Mind Crowded Streets

    Keep bags zipped around Little Venice, Place de l’Ancienne Douane and Rue des Marchands, especially during Christmas markets and busy summer weekends. Use extra care near Gare de Colmar if arriving late.

  • Say Bonjour First

    Open requests to shop and restaurant staff with “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir,” then ask whether they speak English. A “Merci, au revoir” at the end is appreciated.

  • Walk the Center

    Colmar’s historic core is compact and flat, with many sights 10–15 minutes apart on foot. Wear sturdy shoes for the cobbled lanes; the free electric Navette Cœur de Ville is a useful alternative between the station, center and parking areas.

  • Book December Early

    Christmas-market weeks draw heavy crowds, so reserve accommodation well ahead and expect busy streets around Little Venice. For milder weather and vineyard trips, consider May–June or September–October.

  • Check the City Pass

    If you plan several museum visits, compare them with the Colmar City Pass, listed at about €48 for seven consecutive days. It includes one entry to local museums, a canal boat ride and a tourist road-train tour; check current prices and terms before buying.

  • Carry Some Cash

    Cards are widely accepted, but keep €20–€50 in cash for small bakery purchases, market stalls and coin-operated public restrooms. Restaurant service is included in the bill; tipping is voluntary, and rounding up is common.

  • Try Alsatian Staples

    Browse Marché Couvert on Rue des Écoles for Munster cheese and Alsatian charcuterie. For a sweet local specialty, look for kougelhopf, a yeasted cake often made with raisins and kirsch.

Frequently asked

Is Colmar worth visiting?

Yes, especially if you like historic architecture and art: Colmar pairs canal-side timber houses with the Isenheim Altarpiece at the Unterlinden Museum. It also makes a practical base for Alsace wine villages.

How many days should I spend in Colmar?

Plan two days for the old town, museums and a slow meal, or three if you want time for a wine-village day trip. The center is compact, but the Unterlinden Museum merits a few unhurried hours.

How do you get around Colmar without a car?

Walk around the compact historic center, then use the free electric Navette Cœur de Ville for links between the station, central area and parking. TRACE buses serve the local area, and regional buses connect Colmar with nearby wine villages; check current schedules before setting out.

Is Colmar safe for visitors?

Colmar is generally a low-risk town for visitors, though crowded areas can attract opportunistic pickpockets. Keep valuables secure at the Christmas markets and around Little Venice, and take normal care near the station late at night.

How much does a trip to Colmar cost?

Your daily budget depends on lodging and dining, but local transport has inexpensive options: research-listed fares are about €1.50 for a one-hour ticket and €3.60 for a 24-hour pass. The Colmar City Pass is listed at about €48 for seven days; confirm current prices before travel.

When is the best time to visit Colmar?

May–June and September–October bring milder weather for walking, cycling and vineyard visits. Late November and December bring the Christmas markets, but accommodation and central streets get much busier.

Is Colmar a tourist trap?

The central canal district can feel crowded, particularly in summer and during the Christmas markets, but the city offers more than its postcard views. Make time for the Unterlinden Museum, the Tanners’ Quarter and the covered market, or visit in spring or autumn.

All Places to Visit.

12 places to discover

Unterlinden Museum
Place

Unterlinden Museum

St Martin'S Church, Colmar
Place

St Martin'S Church, Colmar

Municipal Theatre of Colmar
Place

Municipal Theatre of Colmar

Place

Synagogue De Colmar

Gare De Colmar
Place

Gare De Colmar

Place

Musée Bartholdi

Place

Colmar Stadium

Place

Departmental Archives of Haut-Rhin

Préfecture Du Haut-Rhin
Place

Préfecture Du Haut-Rhin

Colmar Airport
Place

Colmar Airport

Statue of Gustave-Adolphe Hirn
Place

Statue of Gustave-Adolphe Hirn

Upper Alsace University
Place

Upper Alsace University

Photo credits (9)
  1. View of Église Saint-Martin (43833049001) — sinava-- from Berlin — CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) — Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Église_Saint-Martin_(43833049001).jpg
  2. PHILIPPE SERRAND — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/18249685/
  3. PHILIPPE SERRAND — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/18249572/
  4. Thomas balabaud — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/6447203/
  5. Pierre Blaché — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/2901209/
  6. PHILIPPE SERRAND — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/18249238/
  7. Adrien Olichon — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/5081690/
  8. PHILIPPE SERRAND — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/18249683/
  9. PHILIPPE SERRAND — Pexels License (https://www.pexels.com/license/) — Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/18249236/

Photos may have been resized or cropped.