Colmar is the third-largest commune of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. It is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department and the arrondissement of Colmar. Colmar is 64 kilometres (40 mi) south-southwest of Strasbourg on the Lauch River, a tributary of the Ill River. It is located directly to the east of the Vosges Mountains and connected to the Rhine in the east by a canal.
The town is situated along the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the “capital of Alsatian wine” (capitale des vins d’Alsace). The city is renowned for its well preserved old town, its numerous architectural landmarks and its museums, among which is the Unterlinden Museum with the Isenheim Altarpiece. Colmar shares the Université de Haute-Alsace (Upper Alsace University) with the neighbouring, larger city of Mulhouse.
Mostly spared from the destructions of the French Revolution and the wars of 1870–1871, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, the cityscape of old-town Colmar is homogenous and renowned among tourists. An area that is crossed by canals of the river Lauch (which formerly served as the butcher’s, tanner’s and fishmonger’s quarter) is now called “little Venice” (la Petite Venise). Colmar’s cityscape (and neighbouring Riquewihr‘s) served for the design of the Japanese animated film Howl’s Moving Castle. Colmar’s secular and religious architectural landmarks reflect eight centuries of Germanic and French architecture and the adaptation of their respective stylistic language to the local customs and building materials (pink and yellow Vosges sandstone, timber framing). The Municipal Library of Colmar (Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar), one of the richest collections of incunabula in France, with more than 2,300 volumes. This is quite an exceptional number for a city that is neither the main seat of a university, nor of a college, and has its explanation in the disowning of local monasteries, abbeys and convents during the French Revolution and the subsequent gift of their collections to the town.
Colmar is an affluent city whose primary economic strength lies in the flourishing tourist industry. Every year since 1947, Colmar is host to what is now considered as the biggest annual commercial event as well as the largest festival in Alsace, the Foire aux vins d’Alsace (Alsacian wine fair).
