Current Time in Colmar, France

Colmar is a charming city in the Haut-Rhin department of the Alsace region in northeastern France, situated in the Rhine plain between the Vosges mountains to the west and the Rhine River and Germany to the east. With its extraordinarily well-preserved medieval and Renaissance old town of half-timbered houses, canals, and colorful flower-bedecked facades, Colmar is widely considered one of the most beautiful cities in France and is the principal stop on the famous Alsace Wine Route. The city's appearance so closely resembles a fairy-tale illustration that it is frequently cited as one of the inspirations for the Alsatian village depicted in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

With a population of approximately 70,000, Colmar is the second-largest city in Alsace after Strasbourg and one of the best-preserved historic cities in all of France. The city's remarkable state of preservation reflects the fact that Colmar was largely spared from bombing during both World Wars, allowing it to retain the full richness of its half-millennium of architectural accumulation. The result is a historic center of extraordinary visual cohesion and beauty.

The history of Colmar is deeply shaped by its position in the contested borderland between France and Germany. The city developed as an important free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in the medieval period and became a major center of Renaissance art and humanist scholarship in the 15th and 16th centuries. Colmar became French in 1648 through the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War, then German in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, and French again in 1919 after World War I, and briefly German again during World War II. This complex history has created a unique Franco-German Alsatian culture expressed in the city's bilingual character, its architecture, and its cuisine.

The Musée Unterlinden, housed in a former Dominican convent and a spectacular modern extension by Herzog and de Meuron, contains one of the most important collections of medieval art in France and is home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, perhaps the most emotionally powerful work of religious art produced in the German-speaking world. Painted by Matthias Grünewald between 1512 and 1516, the altarpiece's scenes of the Crucifixion and Resurrection display an intensity of suffering and transcendence that continues to overwhelm viewers five centuries after its creation. The museum also contains important Alsatian Renaissance paintings, decorative arts, and archaeological collections.

The Petite Venise quarter of Colmar, where the Lauch River divides into canals flowing through the old tanner's and fishermen's quarters, is the most photographed area of the city, its colorful half-timbered houses with flower-filled window boxes reflected in the calm water creating a scene of almost impossible picturesqueness. The Dominican Church contains a magnificent 14th-century altarpiece by Martin Schongauer, one of the great German printmakers. The Maison Pfister and the Maison des Têtes are outstanding examples of Renaissance architecture unique to the Alsatian tradition.

Colmar is the principal city of the Alsace Wine Route, surrounded by vineyards producing the distinctive white wines of Alsace including Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Muscat. The wine harvest in autumn and the Christmas market in December, when the city's half-timbered facades are decorated with lights and garlands, are particularly celebrated times to visit. The Christmas Market of Colmar is one of the oldest and most beautiful in France.

Colmar is connected to Strasbourg and Basel by frequent train services and is easily accessible from the French and German motorway networks. The city's extraordinary architectural beauty, world-class medieval art museum, wine culture, and distinctive Alsatian culinary tradition make it one of the most rewarding and visually memorable destinations in France.