The Maison Pfister, on the corner of rue des Marchands and rue Mercière, is the most photographed building in Colmar after the Petite Venise quays. Built in 1537 for a hatter named Ludwig Scherer, it is a sumptuous example of late-Gothic and early-Renaissance burgher architecture: a polychrome painted façade with biblical scenes, a wood-shingled octagonal turret, an arcaded ground floor and a long gallery jutting out under the eaves.
The name "Pfister" comes from a 19th-century owner, not the original family. The painted decoration was restored in the 1970s and is bright enough to feel almost garish; the older medallions of the prophets at the corner are easier to read. The house is private and not open to the public, but the corner outside is a free and reliably good photograph.