As the adage goes, some of the best treasures come in the smallest packages – and as the smallest of France’s 27 mainland regions, Alsace offers numerous masterpieces, including Strasbourg Cathedral and the Unterlinden Museum’s Isenheim altarpiece.
This December, the town of Colmar in the heart of Alsace will unveil its latest extraordinary treasure with the reopening of the Unterlinden Museum. Designed by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, the extensive expansion incorporates a majestic 1906 Art Nouveau building that once housed the city’s municipal baths. The completion of the three-year construction project will enable the museum to highlight its superlative modern art collection.
©Herzog & de Meuron
Originally founded as a convent “under the linden tree” in the 13th century, Unterlinden Museum became a museum in the 19th century, celebrated for its late Middle Ages collection of sculptures and paintings. The museum’s signature chef d’oeuvre is the early Renaissance Isenheim Altarpiece painted by Grünewald (1512 -1516), a master of late Gothic art.
Connected via a tunnel, as well as a plaza, the newly-expanded Unterlinden Museum reconfigures the historical center of Colmar with the reopening of the Sinn Canal and a refurbishment of Unterlinden Square.
©Herzog & de Meuron
Nestled between the Vosges and the Rhine at the crossroads of the Germanic and Latin worlds, Alsace is one of France’s 17 wine regions, celebrated for its classic Alsatian wines with their own AOC official designation and a world-famous cuisine that includes choucroute and tarte flambée.
The principal city in Alsace, Strasbourg is the erstwhile capital of Europe with an entire city center designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Apart from its stature as a Romanesque and Gothic art capital, Alsace offers more than 7,000 miles of hiking trails and over 1,500 miles of biking trails, while Nordic and Alpine skiers can descend from an altitude of over 4,000 feet.
©Herzog & de Meuron
Apart from the Unterlinden Museum, the city of Colmar is home to the Bartholdi Museum, which honors Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, as well as “Little Venice,” a charming waterfront neighborhood of homes lining the river Lauch.
Second only to the Musée Fabre in Montpellier for France’s most popular regional museums, Unterlinden Museum attracts more than 200,000 annual visitors – a statistic that is certain to increase with the museum’s December reopening.
