Museum Unterlinden

What does this new building mean for Colmar?
The question is superfluous if you saw who was invited at the opening. Colmar's mayor, Gilbert Meyer, welcomed French President François Hollande, Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider-Ammann and around four hundred and fifty other guests of honor to his community. France is celebrating the reopening of the small Unterlinden Museum in the far south-east of the country with a small state event.
In Colmar, the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have restored and expanded the Unterlinden Museum, unearthed a river and given the city a new place.
The famous Isenheim Altar shines in a new light.

Museum housed in a beautiful building with a rich fund from the Neolithic to the present day. In addition, important sacral art from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Particularly noteworthy: the crucifixion painted on wood, which is the oldest surviving panel painting in the Upper Rhine area. With its shimmering colors that imitate the shine of goldsmith's work, the hallmarked gold background, the carefully executed fine details that are close to the book illumination, and the elongated bodies, it is a typical work of international Gothic (quoted on the museum's website).

A tour of the Musée Unterlinden is like a journey through time. The museum houses the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), the masterpiece by Grünewald and Niklaus von Hagenau, as well as paintings by Martin Schongauer, Hans Holbein, Lucas Cranach and others, is housed in the medieval monastery.