COLMAR, or Kolmar, till 1870 the chief town of the department of Haut Rhin in France, but now of the district of Upper Alsace, in the German empire, is situated on the Lauch and the Fecht, tributaries of the Ill. It communicates by a canal with the Rhine, and has a station on the railway from Basel to Strasburg, being about 40 miles S.S.W. of the latter city. It is the seat of the administrative offices for Upper Alsace, an imperial court of appeal for Alsace-Lorraine, a commercial court, an imperial lyceum, a Protestant normal college, a literary, an agricultural, and a natural history society. The last, founded in 1861, maintains a valuable museum in the old convent of Unterlinden, and publishes valuable contributions to local science. There is another museum, named after the old painter Schongau, for the preservation of works of art; the town library contains 50,000 volumes, and the archives of Upper Alsace reach back to the 7th century. The most remarkable edifices in the town are the so-called cathedral, or St Martin’s church, a Gothic structure built in 1363, the prefecture or administrational buildings, and the townhouse; and there are also civil and military, hospitals, barracks, a theatre, and a deaf-mute institution. The manufactures of the town comprise cotton goods of various sorts, packing-cloth, hosiery, starch, silk thread, iron and copper wares, engines, sewing-machines, bricks, matches, and leather; and there are eight breweries, a dye-work, and several printing and lithographic establishments. The domestic trade of the country is centred in the city, and large transactions are effected in wine and hops. Colmar grow up round a royal residence called Columbaria, which is first mentioned in the 8th century. It obtained a charter of incorporation in ...