Unterlinden & Museum Quarter

The northern end of Colmar's old town is where the serious art is. The Unterlinden Museum (EUR 13) is built around a 13th-century Dominican convent and was extended in 2015 by Herzog & de Meuron. The Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald (painted 1512-1516) is the reason art historians make the trip: the crucifixion panel is violent and human in a way that nothing else from this period matches, and the resurrection panel glows with an otherworldly light. The museum designed its entire layout around this single work. Beyond the altarpiece, the collection includes Cranach, Holbein, Alsatian folk art, and a good medieval sculpture collection in the cloister. The Dominican Church (free entry) on Rue des Precheurs contains Martin Schongauer's Madonna of the Rose Bower (1473), a painting of delicate beauty that would be the main attraction of any other city. The Bartholdi Museum (EUR 6, on Rue des Marchands) is the birthplace of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty. The house is now a small museum of his models, sketches, and personal effects. Place de la Cathedrale and the streets around it are less crowded than Petite Venise.