Take a look down this narrow, curving cobblestone street framed by tall painted stucco buildings with half-timbered details, drawing your eye toward the multi-tiered church spire rising in the distance.
You are standing at the edge of Rue des Marchands, but back in the fourteenth century, this was known by the much less inviting name of Schädelgasse, or the Street of Skulls. That macabre title came from its proximity to an old ossuary, a dedicated resting place for human bones, located right near the Collegiate Saint-Martin we visited a moment ago. Eventually, as trade boomed and wealthy families moved in, the skulls were quietly phased out and the street was rebranded into the prestigious merchant thoroughfare you see today.
The merchants who settled here certainly left their mark, though sometimes the history they built over is just as interesting as the buildings themselves. Take the House of Austria, located a bit further down. In 1358, Duke Rudolph the Fourth ordered the original house on that spot completely demolished to punish the owners for leading a revolt against the imperial governor. The Duke carved his decree into stone, demanding that the house must never be rebuilt as a perpetual punishment. But as you can guess from the grand sixteenth-century building standing there now, centuries-old ducal wrath is simply no match for prime real estate pressure.
Also along this street is the dazzling Maison Pfister, built in 1537. It is considered Colmar's first true example of Renaissance architecture, a style that brought classical symmetry and highly ornate decoration to Europe. The man who built it was a hatter who became staggeringly wealthy, not by selling hats, but by making incredibly lucky investments in local silver mines. He poured his new fortune into this home. If the building looks like something out of a fairy tale, you are not alone in thinking so. Its distinctive wooden galleries and corner windows directly inspired the visual design of the acclaimed Japanese animated film Howl's Moving Castle.
This street has always been a magnet for creative minds. At number 36, you will find the former studio of Martin Schongauer, the master engraver whose brilliant work we talked about earlier. He bought the house in 1477 to run his flourishing art enterprise. Just down the block at number 48 is the birthplace of Marie Bigot, a piano virtuoso born in 1786 who so thoroughly dazzled Beethoven that he famously wrote her fiery, passionate letters. She later moved to Paris and became the piano teacher to a young Felix Mendelssohn.
There is one more highly creative resident of this street, a sculptor whose monumental work you definitely know, and his childhood home is waiting for us just a few steps away. Take a moment to soak this in, and when you are ready, we can head to the next stop.
