Colmar

Colmar, Ger. Kolmar both: kôlmärˈ, city (1990 pop. 64,889), capital of Haut-Rhin dept., E France, in Alsace. It is connected by rail and canal to Strasbourg, Mulhouse, and Basel, Switzerland. An industrial port on the Rhine, Colmar has metallurgical, textile, and tourist industries. It became a free city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226, and Louis XIV made it the capital of Alsace in 1673. The old section of Colmar retains its medieval architecture. St. Martin's Church (13th and 15th cent.) contains the Madonna of the Rose Arbor by Martin Schongauer, who lived in Colmar all his life. The Unterlinden Museum, in a convent dating from the 13th–14th cent., is outstanding; it contains the Isenheim altarpiece by Mathias Grünewald and numerous masterpieces of the Rhenish school of the 15th cent.

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