Colmar

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

Administration
Commune of Colmar

Christmas at Colmar
Location

Coordinates	48°04′54″N, 07°21′20″E
Country	France
Region	Alsace
Department	Haut-Rhin (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Colmar
Canton	Chief town of 2 cantons
Intercommunality	Communauté d'agglomération de Colmar
Mayor	Gilbert Meyer (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	175 m–214 m (avg. 197 m)
Land area¹	66.57 km²
Population² (1999)	65,136
- Density (1999)	978/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	68066/ 68000
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Petite Venise

Colmar is a town and commune in the Haut-Rhin département of Alsace, France.

In 1999 Colmar had a population of 65,136. Colmar is also the chief town of the arrondissement of Colmar, with 86,832 inhabitants.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Culture
4 Miscellaneous
- 4.1 Twin towns
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Colmar was founded in the 9th century. This was the location where Charles the Fat held a diet in 884. Colmar was granted the status of a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was taken by the armies of Sweden in 1632, who held it for two years. The city was conquered by France under Louis XIV in 1697.

In 1679 (Treaty of Nimwegen) Colmar was ceded to France. With the rest of Alsace, Colmar returned to Germany in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War. It returned to France after World War I, annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945.

[edit] Geography

Colmar is 40 miles (64 kilometers) 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.

With an average annual rainfall level of just 530 mm/m² (21 inches) per year, Colmar is the the dryest town in France. This results from the town's location directly to the east of the Vosges Mountains. The mountains force clouds arriving from the west to rise, and much of their moisture to condense and fall as precipitation over the higher ground, leaving the air warmed and dried by the time it reaches Colmar.

[edit] Culture

The well-preserved old city center houses several, sometimes large-scale buildings in German Gothic and early Renaissance style, as well as a number of old churches, among which the collégiale Saint-Martin (13th-16th century) is the largest and most noteworthy. Local 15th century artist Martin Schongauer painted what is considered his masterpiece, The Madonna of the Roses, in Colmar's Eglise des Dominicains(Dominican Church). Matthias Grünewald's famous Isenheim Altarpiece is the most noteworthy of the treasures housed in the city's Unterlinden Museum.

[edit] Miscellaneous

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

Colmar has a sunny microclimate and is the driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of just 550 mm, making it ideal for Alsatian wine. Colmar is also the Capital of Alsatian wine.