1753 - Voltaire´s troubled stay in Colmar

Voltaire stays in Colmar from October 1753 to November 1754, arriving from the court of Frederick II of Prussia who dismissed him. He works in the "Annales de l´Empire". He makes extensive use of the libraries of the Sovereign Court councillors and lawyers. He finds what he is looking for and he pays tribute to the wealth of documentation as well as to the availability of the owners: "I found in Colmar lawyers who know more about the history of the Empire than anyone in Vienna. Communicative people who deserve respect and who possess fine libraries that are put entirely at our disposal. I am in the only part of France where you can get help on this subject that no one knows the slightest thing about in Paris."

Voltaire, however, runs up against the hostility of the Jesuits, who contest his historian skills and he takes mixed memories of his stay in Colmar, as can be seen in these comments on the city.

The house where Voltaire

lived from 1753 to 1754.