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7 Most Instagrammable Spots in Colmar, the Half-Timbered Town of Alsace
A town of canals and half-timbered houses in France's Alsace region, Colmar's Old Town has stayed largely intact since the medieval and Renaissance periods, its colourful facades often cited as an inspiration for Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle.
Sep 23, 2026 · BigTravel.in
Colmar sits in Alsace, near France's border with Germany, its Old Town largely spared the damage that reshaped much of the region during the World Wars. The result is a dense cluster of half-timbered houses in ochre, blue and pink, canals threading between them, that has made the town a reference point for a certain idea of a European fairy-tale street, an image widely said to have influenced the town in Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle, though the studio has never confirmed a single source for the film's setting. Here are seven spots worth the trip, each with a direct map link.
1. La Petite Venise (Little Venice)
Colmar's canal quarter, where the River Lauch runs past half-timbered houses with window boxes spilling geraniums, is the town's signature view and best seen either early morning or from one of the flat-bottomed boats that run along the water.
2. Maison Pfister
Built in 1537 for a hatmaker, this house's painted medallions, wooden gallery and corner turret make it Colmar's most photographed single building, and one of the best-preserved Renaissance facades in Alsace.
3. Quai de la Poissonnerie
The former fishmongers' quarter, its houses built with the ground floor slightly recessed to make hauling in the day's catch easier, sits directly on the canal and is one of the quietest, least crowded corners of the Old Town.
4. Koïfhus (Ancienne Douane)
Colmar's oldest public building, completed in 1480, once served as the town's customs house and trading hall; its glazed tile roof and stepped gables anchor the small square where several of the Old Town's main streets meet.
5. Rue des Têtes
Named for the carved heads decorating its Renaissance-era Maison des Têtes, this street is lined with tall, narrow merchant houses and leads directly toward the Koïfhus, making it one of the Old Town's most walkable photo runs.
6. Église des Dominicains
This Gothic former Dominican church, plain on the outside by design under the order's original rules, holds Martin Schongauer's 1473 painting The Madonna of the Rose Bower, one of the most significant late-medieval artworks in Alsace.
7. Unterlinden Museum courtyard
Housed partly in a former Dominican convent, the Unterlinden Museum's cloister and modern glass extension frame the Isenheim Altarpiece, and its courtyard is a calmer counterpoint to the busier canal-side streets nearby.
Traveller tips
- Colmar's train station connects directly to Strasbourg, around 30 minutes away, and to Basel across the Swiss border.
- Early morning, before the day-trip coaches from Strasbourg arrive, is the quietest time to photograph La Petite Venise and Maison Pfister.
- December brings Colmar's Christmas markets, among the oldest in France, though also its heaviest crowds.
- The Old Town is compact and best covered entirely on foot; most of these seven spots sit within a 15-minute walk of each other.
Where this is
Colmar, France