Colmar Travel Guide

It is hard to imagine a more picturesque and ideally situated city than Colmar. The capital of the Haut Rhin departement, harmonious – and impossibly beautiful – Colmar is a maze of cobbled pedestrian malls and centuries-old Alsatian-style buildings, many painted in surprise tones of blue, orange, red, or green. And what’s more, Colmar is an excellent base for exploring the Route du Vin, the German university city of Freiburg, and the delightful Swiss city of Basel. It is at the center of Europe in every sense of the word.

However, unlike the city of Strasbourg – the Alsace region’s capital – the first official mention of Colmar didn’t occur until the 9th century. Yet historians are certain that humans have been in the Alsace region for thousands of years; the Celtic Gauls controlled France for several centuries until the Romans invaded France in the last century BC. By 52 BC, the Romans had tightened their grip over France, although, for the next couple of years, the indigenous Gauls fought a guerrilla warfare campaign and stood up to them in several match-drawn pitched battles. Ultimately, the Romans reigned supreme and controlled most of Western Europe for centuries.

That was until the 5th century AD when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, and Gaul became ripe for conquest. The Alemanni – an alliance of Germanic-speaking people who occupied the Rhine region in modern-day Germany – invaded the Alsace region and parts of Switzerland in 406 AD. They managed to control Alsace until 496 AD when the Frankish King Clovis I subjugated the Alemanni at the Battle of Tolbiac. Frankish dukes governed Alsace as part of the broader kingdom for several centuries. Colmar’s first mention occurred in 823, referred to as ‘Columbarium Fiscum’ by a monk called Notker Balbulus. History records that after the treaty of Verdun in 843, Alemannia became a province of the eastern kingdom of Louis the German, a precursor to the Holy Roman Empire. In 800, Charlemagne, son of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel, crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor – a vast territory split into further smaller kingdoms.

Colmar thrived as part of the wider Empire; however, in 1226, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II granted Colmar the status of a Free Imperial City, giving its citizens a certain amount of autonomy. Enjoying its newfound freedom, Colmar seized this opportunity and prospered as an increasingly wealthy merchant town. In 1354, Colmar joined an alliance of ten Imperial Cities in the Alsace region, known as the Decapole. Surprisingly, Strasbourg remained outside the coalition, but the Decapole endured until 1679, when it was disbanded.

In the 16th century, the Reformation swept through Europe, the Protestant teachings of John Calvin finding an enthusiastic audience in regions across Western Europe. The Wars of Religion (1562-98) broke out between the Huguenots (French Protestants who received help from the English), the Catholic League (led by the House of Guise), and the Catholic monarchy. Colmar adopted the Protestant faith in 1575, and in 1598, King Henri IV issued the controversial Edict of Nantes to guarantee the Huguenots many civil and political rights. However, ultra-Catholic Paris refused to allow the new Protestant king entry to the city, and a siege of the capital continued for almost five years. Paris submitted to him only when Henri IV embraced Catholicism at the cathedral in St-Denis.

The events of the 17 and 18th centuries were no less tumultuous. At age five, the Roi Soleil (Sun King) ascended the throne as Louis XIV. After the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), Louis created the first centralized state – Colmar was ceded to French control by the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen.

Colmar remained part of the French state until the 19th century. Following the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte’s subsequent rise to power, France eventually came under the control of Napoleon’s nephew in 1851. He proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III of the Second Empire and involved France in several ruinous wars, the most devastating being the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Upon hearing the news, Prussia took the Emperor prisoner, and defiant and starving Parisian masses took to the streets demanding a republic.

Unfortunately, there was nothing beautiful about the start of the Third Republic. Born as a provisional government of national defense in September 1870, it was quickly besieged by the Prussians, who laid siege to Paris and demanded National Assembly elections be held. The first move made by the resultant monarchist-controlled assembly was to ratify the Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), the harsh terms of which – a 5-billion franc war indemnity and surrender of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine – promoted immediate revolt. Colmar was now a province of Germany. Despite the difficult start, the Third Republic ushered in the glittering belle epoque (beautiful age) with art-nouveau architecture and advances in science and engineering.

Colmar’s role in the major events of the 20th century was significant. After WWI, Alsace returned to France as part of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. However, the region was subsequently annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940. In 1945, a joint US-French operation cleared out German troops from southern Alsace – the operation was known as the ‘Colmar Pocket.’ However, the scars of the war would take far longer to heal; 140,000 Alsatians, as annexed citizens of the Third Reich, had been conscripted into Hitler’s armies. These conscripts were known as the ‘Malgre-Nous’ (literally ‘despite ourselves’) because the vast majority had gone to war against their will; over half never returned from the Russian front and post-war Soviet prison camps. Nevertheless, divisions healed over time, and in 1949, Alsace was chosen as the seat of the Council of Europe and, later, the European Parliament.

Colmar recovered from the conflicts and turmoil of the 20th century with real enthusiasm and determination – today, it is a fitting symbol of peace and prosperity. Despite its popularity within France, the city has not succumbed to the allure of mass tourism, which is only to Colmar’s advantage. Many tourists complain of overcrowded streets and squares in Paris, Venice, and Rome despite the awe that these cities inspire. Our advice is simple: for a dose of tranquillity, excellent gastronomy, and cultural enrichment without the maddening crowds, Colmar is tough to beat.