Colmar

Colmar, the capital of the German district of Upper Alsace, stands on a plain near the Vosges, 42 miles SSW. of Strasburg by rail. Among the principal public buildings of Colmar are the church of St Martin (1263), the Dominican convent of Unterlinden, now a museum, the college, courthouse, and town-hall. Colmar is one of the chief seats of the cotton manufacture in Alsace. Other manufactures are paper, leather, ribbons, and hosiery. Colmar is an old place, having been raised to the rank of a free imperial city in 1226. It rapidly became one of the most prosperous towns in Upper Alsace. Fortified in 1552, its fortifications were razed in 1673 by Louis XIV. Pleasant boulevards now occupy their place. Colmar was formally ceded to France in 1697, but was recovered by Germany in 1871. Pop. (1875) 23,778; (1885) 26,537; (1890) 30,399.