Colmar sights: St Martin's and the Dominican church

Dwight Peck's personal website

More Colmar street scenes (2016)

The medieval town where point-and-shoot photographers can't go wrong

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Colmar sights: St Martin's and the Dominican church

Construction at the Place des Martyrs de la Résistance, across from the Unterlinden, 6 June 2016

The Place des Martyrs de la Résistance

The tower of St Martin's church, with its strange copper 'lantern' on top

Entering the Place des Domicains

Kristin and George in the Place des Domicains, at the rear of the Dominican church, which is off to the right

The Petit Train Blanc de Colmar passing down the Rue des Serruriers ('Locksmiths' Street'), across from the Dominican church

The Dominican church in the Place des Dominicains

The so-called Cathédrale Saint-Martin, or Colmar Cathedral, in the Place de la Cathédrale

Built on top of a Carolingian church from ca. 1000 and a later Romanesque one as well, the present Gothic edifice was constructed between 1234 and 1365 by a college (or association) dedicated to St Martin of Tours -- though properly a collegiate church, because of its enormous size it's always been referred to as the cathedral, but in fact Colmar has never properly been the seat of a bishopric.

The odd lantern atop the belltower was added in 1572.

A single nave with two aisles and an ambulatory

Chapels, like this one with a life-size Last Supper, surround the choir.

The Rue de l'Eglise at the back of the St Martin Church

Rue Mercière (Haberdashers' Street), leading to the famous Maison Pfister [more on that later]

The Salle du Corps de Garde, or medieval police station, on the west side of the Place de la Cathédrale, built in the 16th century with the loggia dating from 1577-1582.

On the Rue des Clefs, one of the central north-south streets

An after-dinner walkabout: in the Place de l'Ancienne Douane, or Old Customs House

Place de l'Ancienne Douane

The old customs house, or Koifhus, built in 1480, with a 16th century addition running northward to the right

Colmar by night

The Maison Pfister by lamplight

More Colmar sights

In real life, so to speak, we spent the next day at the Kunstmuseum in Basel (Bâle), but since we're pacing the streets of Colmar already, we'll leap ahead and carry on. 8 June 2016.

The breakfast room of the Maison Martin Jund

More Colmar walkabout

The Rue Mangold, and the Winstub Flory (we'll be back)

The St Martin church on a bright morning

The Place de la Cathédrale

Postcards

The Dominican church in the Place des Dominicains

The Place des Dominicains and Rue des Serruriers

The Dominican order moved in on Colmar in 1277, despite local resistance, and had their church under construction by 1283, with the cornerstone laid by Rudolf of Habsburg, King of the Germans. It was out of religious service during the 19th century, following the suppression of the orders after the French Revolution, but appears to be back in service now.

Dominicans never went in for fancy decorations, but in their absence, there in the chancel is perhaps the main reason for its present fame: Martin Schongauer's Madonna in the Rose Garden (1473). It was stolen in 1972 from the St Martin Church, but recovered the next year near Lyon and displayed here since then.

Stations of the Cross, by Martin Schongauer

Behind the Madonna retable, there's an ongoing exhibition of Dominican history, semi-interesting.

The Madonna of the Rose Bower (or Garden)

Another view of the Madonna, the exhibition, and the surviving 14th century stained glass windows

Damsel in distress

Cultural diversity

The Place des Dominicains again. Colmar is famous for its Christmas market, and in November 2010 we got some poignant photos of the seasonal facilities being set up all over town, but in June it's too early for this year.

The original Petit Train de Colmar (not the Petit Train Blanc de Colmar)

Followed closely by the Petit Train Blanc de Colmar, near the park of the Place Rapp

The Place Rapp, at the northern end of the old town. Jean Rapp was a bold Napoleonic general who was born in Colmar, and his statue was made by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, perhaps Colmar's best known favorite son, creator of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, whose works are all over Colmar, and all over France and the USA, and whose birthplace/museum was opened here in 1922.

Back into the old town on the Rue des Marchands

The Rue des Marchands

Espace des Marchands

A peek at the St Martin Church

Arches, part of the Salle du Corps de Garde on the Rue des Marchands

The Musée Bartholdi on the Rue des Marchands

Across the road from the Bartholdi Museum and adjacent to the Maison Pfister

The Maison Pfister, built by a well-to-do hatter in 1537, bought by the merchant Pfister in 1841

And the cathedral just down the side street, the Rue Mercière

Across from the Pfister House, the house 'Zum Schwan', in which Martin Schongauer lived and worked from 1477 to his death in 1491.

The corner of the Rue des Augustins and the Rue des Marchands

Time for some views of the Kunstmuseum in Bâle, or Basel

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