The Haut-Rhin is the southern part of Alsace, situated between the Vosges and the Rhine, with Colmar as its capital. This cross-border department, divided since 2021 between the two Alsatian departments within the European Collectivity of Alsace, boasts an exceptional heritage of castles set amidst the vineyards, forests and rolling hills characteristic of Southern Alsace.
Colmar, ‘the most Alsatian of Alsatian towns’, showcases its half-timbered architecture in the Petite Venise district, along the Lauch canals. Its Unterlinden Museum houses Matthias Grünewald’s Issenheim Altarpiece, one of the absolute masterpieces of 16th-century Germanic painting. Ribeauvillé, dominated by its three ruined castles—Saint-Ulrich, Girsberg and Haut-Ribeaupierre—and Riquewihr, a wine-growing village whose medieval fortifications are almost intact, are two of the jewels of the Wine Route.
Belfort, an enclave between Alsace and Franche-Comté, boasts a Vauban citadel listed as a historic monument and the famous Lion of Belfort sculpted by Bartholdi, a symbol of the city’s resistance during the siege of 1870–1871.