Cologne Cathedral, a famous German landmark and popular tourist attraction, will start charging an admission fee as Church officials struggle with rising maintenance costs. Source: Crux.
The Catholic cathedral’s chapter says it will start charging tourists in the second half of this year, but did not specify how high the admission fee would be.
The twin-spired Catholic cathedral towers over Cologne’s main railway station, next to the Rhine River, and dominates the city skyline. Construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1248 and was completed in 1880. It was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1996.
The cathedral gets about six million visitors per year.
Inflation and rising personnel costs have led to a steady increase in the cost of maintaining the building, the cathedral chapter said. The cathedral plans to spend this year about 16 million euros ($18.6m).
At the same time, reserves that have been used to plug financing gaps in recent years have largely dried up, in part because fee-paying visits to the cathedral’s towers and treasury could not take place for long periods during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Church officials have made savings, for instance, by not replacing workers who leave 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 for prayer in some areas will be exempted from the new admission fee.
The cathedral’s dean, Msgr Guido Assmann, said tourists account for about 99 per cent of visitors, the German news agency DPA reported.
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Cologne Cathedral, one of Germany’s best-known landmarks, to charge tourists for admission (AP via Crux)
