The diamond tiles
A green and gold diamond roof — the Alsatian signature over pink stone.
Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · BelPatty86 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · BelPatty86 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Flominator (talk) — CC BY-SA 3.0
Saint-Martin is Colmar's great church — locals call it 'the cathedral' though it formally is not — a Gothic mass of pink and gold Vosges stone filling its square in the old town's heart, built through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its best is outside: carved portals with their scenes, a roof of coloured diamond tiles in the Alsatian way, and a tower with an odd helm added after a fire — now the town's skyline mark. Storks, Alsace's emblem, nest around it — look hard at the pinnacles. The interior is spacious, darkly solemn, with old stained glass. The visit is short and folds into the lanes walk, and the square around it holds some of Colmar's best café sitting.
A green and gold diamond roof — the Alsatian signature over pink stone.
An odd tower cap born of a fire, now the skyline's mark.
Thirteenth-century carvings telling their stories over the door.
18 Place de la Cathédrale, 68000 Colmar
Maison PfisterThe Pfister house is Alsace's most famous house outright: built by a rich hatter1 minute walk4.8
Bartholdi MuseumIn an old family house on the merchants' street, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was 1 minute walk4.5
The Koïfhus (Old Customs House)The Koïfhus is Colmar's oldest public building (1480) and its old economic heart2 minutes walk4.8
Place de l'Ancienne DouaneThe central square of old Colmar, turning on the **Koïfhus** — the old customs h2 minutes walk4.9
Place des Martyrs de la RésistanceA square in Colmar named in memory of the martyrs of the French Resistance, stan2 minutes walk4.4Because the bishop's seat is Strasbourg, not Colmar — a 'collégiale' is a church served by a college of canons. But in size and grandeur it is cathedral-class by any practical measure, and the locals settled the naming centuries ago.
It opens only on rare occasions — assume closed. Colmar's overhead view comes not from here but from the surrounding vineyard hills if you have a car.
The stork is Alsace's emblem and luck-bringer, nearly extinct locally until breeding programmes brought it roaring back — nests on churches and chimneys are the authentic Alsatian sight. In Colmar, watch Saint-Martin's pinnacles and Little Venice's rooftops.