I must admit that what really attracted me to the Collégiale Saint-Martin was its exterior: all golden and grey stone, flying buttresses and tall windows, beautiful but not overwhelmingly ornate. And the sloping roofs beside the spire were delightfully quaint, with two slopes. The lower slope, tiled in a deep green, had a pattern picked out in diamonds of brown tile. The upper slope was the reverse: brown tiles, with a pattern of green diamonds. A church with an exterior like that deserved closer inspection, we decided.

Near the main entrance to the church, we found the ubiquitous signboard (a feature I appreciated about Colmar’s attractions: each sign has an illustration of the monument/statue/fountain/whatever, along with a brief history and description, in French, English and German). This one informed us that that the Collégiale Saint-Martin is considered the most imposing Gothic church in Middle Alsace. On a more useful note, we learnt that it was constructed 1235 onwards on the site of a previous building. The roof (those lovely tiles!) was put in during the 16th century, after a fire in 1572 destroyed a spire that originally formed part of the church.

The interior of the church proved equally lovely. There are beautiful stained glass windows, some of them very old and dating back to the early years of the building. The rose window, while not especially intricate, is distinctly early medieval in style: from a central circular `portrait’ of Christ’s face, petals in blue, purple, white, red, green and yellow radiate, with patterns of flowers and leaves in separate panels below and around. Worth a look, but where the Collégiale Saint-Martin really scores is in its extensive and excellently carved woodwork. The choir stalls, of dark polished wood, are carved in intricate patterns featuring saints and angels, vegetation, flowers, and fragile, almost-lace like borders. There’s good carved stonework, too, but the carved wood is a must-see.

The Collégiale Saint-Martin definitely deserves a visit (it is, by the way, the largest church in Colmar). Entry is free and photography is allowed, though without the use of a flash.

The interior features a tall nave with broad side aisles. Patterned stained-glass windows in the Gothic style are high in the nave walls, leaving broad expanses of blank space below. Remarkable in this church is the choir, which was erected in 1350, as well as the raised altar and soaring stained-glass windows of the apse.

To the left of the altar is the only remarkable chapel – the Chapelle St. Sacrament. The other side altars tend to be relatively diminutive in a church this size. Looking back to the rear of the church, where one might expect a rose window, there is a magnificent loft with the organ and its pipes.

So this might not be the most spectacular church in France… in fact, it’s not even close. It is a nice visit, and to be most enjoyed, I suggest sitting in the Place de la Cathedrale and studying its external carving over the top of your glass of Fischer Beer or Alsatian wine… or even a Coke, if you can afford it.