The Isenheim Altarpiece

The reason most visitors come to the Musée Unterlinden is the Isenheim Altarpiece (Retable d'Issenheim), painted between roughly 1512 and 1516 by the German master Matthias Grünewald, with carved figures by Nikolaus Hagenauer. Originally made for the monastery hospital of the Antonites at Issenheim, where monks cared for sufferers of ergotism and plague, the work is a polyptych of hinged panels that once opened to reveal different scenes through the church year.

Its centrepiece is one of the most viscerally powerful Crucifixions in Western art — Christ's tortured, lesion-marked body spoke directly to the diseased patients the monks treated. The other panels swing between that anguish and radiant hope: a luminous Resurrection, an Annunciation, and a Nativity bathed in light. The altarpiece is displayed in the convent's former chapel, where the soaring Gothic space gives the panels room to breathe. Plan to spend real time here; it rewards slow looking, and the museum provides explanatory panels in several languages.

Collections & the Building

The Musée Unterlinden is far more than a single masterpiece. The medieval and Renaissance galleries hold a rich body of Upper Rhine art — Martin Schongauer's panels, late-Gothic sculpture, altarpieces, and devotional works that trace Colmar's importance as an artistic centre. There are also archaeology rooms, decorative arts, and a strong run of 19th- and 20th-century painting that reaches into modernism.

The building itself is half the experience. The original 13th-century Dominican convent, arranged around a tranquil cloister, was repurposed as a museum in the 19th century. The 2015 extension by Herzog & de Meuron — the Swiss firm behind London's Tate Modern — added a brick-clad new wing echoing the old convent's gable, connected to the historic galleries by an underground passage that runs beneath the square. The result lets the museum show its modern collection in purpose-built spaces while keeping the altarpiece in its atmospheric chapel. Give yourself at least two hours for the whole complex.

Tickets & Hours

Opening hours (2026): The museum is open Wednesday to Monday, 09:00–18:00, with last admission at 17:30. It is closed every Tuesday, as well as on 1 January, 1 May, 1 November, and 25 December. On 24 and 31 December it closes early at 16:00 (last entry 15:30).

Admission: The standard adult ticket is €14, with a reduced rate of €12 and a young-visitor rate of €9 (ages 12–17 and students under 30). A family ticket (2 adults + 1–5 children aged 12–17) is around €36. Children under 12 enter free, as do holders of the Museum-Pass-Musées and visitors with disabilities. An audioguide adds about €3 to any ticket. Online tickets purchased in advance are valid for a full year from the date of purchase, which is handy if your plans are flexible.

Getting There

The Musée Unterlinden sits on Place Unterlinden at the northern edge of Colmar's old town, a five-minute walk from the central pedestrian streets and about a 10-minute walk from Colmar train station (or a short bus ride on several city lines that stop nearby). Colmar is on the main Strasbourg–Mulhouse–Basel rail line, with frequent regional trains, so the museum is an easy day trip without a car. If you do drive, use one of the signposted city-centre car parks — the historic core is largely pedestrianised. From the museum it is a short stroll south into La Petite Venise and the half-timbered lanes that make Colmar so photogenic.

Explore More of Colmar

• Things to Do in Colmar — the full city guide.
• Colmar Museums: Unterlinden & Bartholdi — how Unterlinden fits with Colmar's other collections.
• La Petite Venise — the canal quarter a short walk away.