Cologne Cathedral, Germany’s famous landmark and popular tourist attraction, will start charging visitors an admission fee as church officials grapple with rising maintenance costs.
Berlin– Cologne Cathedral, a famous German landmark and popular tourist attraction, will start charging visitors an admission fee as church officials struggle with rising maintenance costs.
The Catholic cathedral’s chapter announced
The Catholic cathedral’s chapter announced Thursday it will begin charging the fee in the second half of this year but did not say how much more it would be.
The twin-spired Catholic cathedral is located next to Cologne’s main train station and the Rhine River and dominates the city’s skyline. Construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1248 and was completed in 1880. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
Approximately 6 million tourists visit the cathedral annually.
The cathedral chapter said the cost of maintaining the building was continuing to rise due to inflation and rising personnel costs. The cathedral plans to spend about 16 million euros ($18.6 million) this year.
At the same time, reserves used to bridge the financing gap have largely dried up recently, as fee-paying tours of the cathedral’s towers and treasury could not take place for extended periods during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, church officials have saved money by leaving positions vacant in the cathedral architect’s office, but they said the measures taken so far cannot fix the problem in the long term.
People entering the cathedral to attend services and to pray in some areas will be exempt from the new entry fee.
