The Quartier des Tanneurs is the most architecturally distinctive corner of old Colmar. Tanners settled here from the 14th century onwards, drawn by the slow side-channel of the Lauch where they soaked hides. Their houses, restored in the 1970s after decades of decline, are unusually tall and narrow — three or four storeys of half-timbered upper floors above a stone ground level — built that way so the top floor, with its wide-louvred drying loft, could catch the wind.
It is a quiet pocket compared with the busy lanes nearer the cathedral. The buildings are now mostly private homes, with a handful of restaurants and craft shops on the rue des Tanneurs. The smell that gave the quarter its character has thankfully not been preserved.