Colmar

(This article is about the city in Alsace. There is also a Colmar, Pennsylvania in the United States.)

Colmar is a city in the Haut-Rhin '\'département'' of Alsace, France. Colmar was also known as Kolmar during the times when Alsace was controlled by Germany. In 1999 the city of Colmar had a population of 65,136 people. Colmar is also the head of Colmar préfecture, with 86,832 inhabitants. The city of Colmar is 40 miles south-southwest of Strasbourg, at 48.08°N, 7.36°E, on the Lauch River. It is connected to the Rhine River by a canal.

The town of Colmar was founded in the 9th century. Colmar was granted the status of a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226.

The city was taken by the armies of Sweden in 1632, who held it for two years.

The city was united with France in 1697.

Houses on a canal, Colmar

Local 15th century artist Martin Schongauer painted what is considered his masterpiece, The Madonna of the Roses, in Colmar's St. Martin Church. Matthias Grünewald's famous Isenheim Altarpiece is the most noteworthy of the treaures housed in the city's Unterlinden Museum.

Colmar was also the home town of sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (best known for the Statue of Liberty), and contains a number of his works.