Colmar

Administrative centre of the Haut-Rhin département of eastern France, on the River Lauch between the River Rhine and the Vosges mountains; population (1999) 65,100, conurbation 86,800. It is the centre of a wine-growing and market-gardening area. Industries include engineering, food processing, and textiles. The church of St Martin is 13th-14th century, and the former Dominican monastery, now the Unterlinden Museum, contains a Grünewald altarpiece. Many tourists visit the town.

History Colmar was made a free imperial city in 1226, and was formally ceded to France in 1697. It was held by the Germans 1871-1919 and 1940-45. Colmar is the most beautiful town in Alsace after Strasbourg, and has many old houses, convents, and churches. Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, was born here in 1834, as was Georges Haussmann, the administrator who replanned central Paris in the 19th century. Many of the surrounding villages were seriously damaged in the final phase of World War II.