The Bartholdi high school is on the Oberhof, which is a Carolingian estate at the origin from the city of Colmar. On this site where was the Benedictine Saint Pierre priory, the Jesuits created in the 18th century the first French school of the city. After the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1764, the school became College royal. The neo-classic library and the auditorium (salle des actes) came from this period and were imagined by the architect Pierre Michel d’Ixnard between 1785 and 1787.
After becoming a national college in 1791, the school had to wait until 1856, and the Second French Empire, to have the status of high school. In tribute to the famous sculptor from Colmar, the school is named “Lycée Bartholdi” in 1919.