Here we are at the Museum of Natural History and Ethnography. Standing on the right side, you have a perfect view of the main facade. It is quite the leap from the dense legal history of the Sovereign Council of Alsace, our previous stop, to the wild wonders packed inside this building.
The structure itself dates all the way back to 1467. Originally, it was practical housing for a stonemason. Over the centuries, it took on several different lives, serving as military offices, a municipal chancery, and eventually a higher school for girls. It was not until 1984 that this building became the permanent home for an incredibly diverse collection of natural and cultural artifacts.
The story of that collection begins in 1859. A group of prominent locals and scientists, including the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, got together to form the Natural History Society of Colmar. They began gathering zoological, geological, and ethnographic items, which simply means objects documenting different human cultures, and originally displayed them in the Unterlinden convent. But the Second World War disrupted everything. The society was forced to shut down, and its massive collections were scattered across various locations. It easily could have been the end of the museum. Fortunately, after the war, a fiercely dedicated group of volunteers tracked down the dispersed items and brought the institution back to life.
And what a collection they managed to save. Inside, the sheer variety is a bit staggering. You will find ancient geological marvels, like a nearly complete fossilized bird from the Toarcian age, a specific stage of the Early Jurassic period millions of years ago. They also have an impressive, slightly melancholic array of preserved animals, serving as a record of species we have lost. This includes the extinct Java tiger, the North African Atlas lion, which no longer exists in the wild, and the American passenger pigeon, a bird completely hunted out of existence by humans.
But the museum does not stop at biology and geology. It holds the only Egyptian collection accessible to the public in the Alsace region, featuring the sarcophagus of a priest from 610 BC. In the ethnology section, which focuses on the customs of different peoples, you will find rare artifacts brought back by well traveled locals, like an ancestral skull from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. It really is a classic cabinet of curiosities, assembled by people who simply wanted to understand the wider world and bring a piece of it back to Colmar.
If you want to explore the exhibits, keep in mind they are closed on Mondays, and generally open mornings and afternoons the rest of the week, with slightly longer afternoon hours on weekends. It is a fascinating testament to human curiosity and preservation. Take a moment to soak this in, and when you are ready, we can head toward the Saint-Matthew Church of Colmar.
