COLMAR, a town of France, capital of the department of Haut-Rhin, on the Logelbach and Lauch, tributaries of the Ill, 40 m. S.S.W. of Strasbourg on the main railway to Basle. Pop. (1931) 41,480.
Colmar (probably the columbarium of the Romans) is first mentioned, as a royal villa, in a charter of 823. It was raised to the status of a town and surrounded with walls by Wolfelin, advocate (Landvogt) of the emperor Frederick II. in Alsace. In 1226 it became an imperial city, and the civic rights (Stadtrecht) conferred on it in 1274 by Rudolph of Habsburg became the model for those of many other cities. A long struggle between democratic gilds and aristocratic "families" ended in 1347 in the inclusion of the former in the governing body, and in the i7th century in the complete exclusion of the latter. In 1255 Colmar joined the league of Rhenish cities, and in 1476 and 1477 took a vigorous share in the struggle against Charles the Bold. It suf fered in the wars of the i7th century, was formally annexed to France in 168i, and to Germany in 1871, and again became a part of France in 1919.
The Roman Catholic parish church (Munster) of St. Martin dates from the i3th and i4th centuries. Other notable buildings are the Lutheran parish church (i5th century) ; the former Dominican monastery 0232-1289), known as "Unterlinden" and now used as a museum; the Kaufhaus (trade-hall) of the i5th century. Colmar is the centre of considerable textile industries, comprising wool, cotton and silk-weaving, and has important man ufactures of sewing thread, starch, sugar and machinery. Bleach ing and brewing are also carried on, and the neighbourhood is rich in vineyards and fruit-gardens.