Colmar, chief town of the département of Haut-Rhin in Upper Alsace and the third largest town in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), lies near the vine-covered foothills of the southern Vosges, in the climatically favored Upper Rhine plain. Situated near the mouths of two major valleys in the Vosges, it is an excellent center from which to
explore the High Vosges; and with its picturesque old burghers' houses of the 16th and 17th centuries and its many treasures of art it is also one of the principal tourist attractions of Alsace in its own right.
Apart from the tourist trade, Colmar's economy depends on the textile industry, the production of foodstuffs and metal-working, together with market gardening (vegetables). 20km/12.5mi southeast of the town is the Rhine port of Colmar-Neuf-Brisach. The town, first recorded in 823 under the name of Columbarium ("Dovecot"), was surrounded by walls in 1220. The Emperor Frederick II granted it the status of a free imperial city, which soon became the most important market town in Upper Alsace and a center of art and learning. In 1354 Colmar joined the "Decapolis", the league of 10 imperial cities in Alsace. The town was closely involved in the Reformation. During the Thirty Years War it was occupied by the Swedes and in 1673 by the French, and thereafter shared the destinies of Alsace.
Colmar was the birthplace of the painter and engraver Martin Schongauer (1445- 1491), and the painter Matthias Groenewald (1470-1528), the last and greatest master of the Late Gothic period, also worked here. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), who created the Lion of Belfort and New York's Statue of Liberty, was a native of Colmar.
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