Cologne Cathedral’s plans to start charging fees from visitors have sparked protests, with critics warning against limiting access to the majestic Gothic building to the well-off.
Officials said this month that the cathedral, the world’s tallest twin-towered church and a tourist magnet in Germany’s fourth-largest city, could only be maintained with a new source of income.
They announced a plan to start selling tickets starting in July. The price of admission to the Kölner Dom, from which worshipers would be exempt, is estimated to be between €12 and €15 (£10 and £13), a cost many consider prohibitive.
Architect Barbara Schock-Werner, who heads the non-profit association Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln (ZDV), which supports the cathedral’s conservation and has more than 19,000 members, said any amount above 10 euros would be irresponsible.
“This seems unfair to the inhabitants of Cologne and the surrounding area,” he told local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “If only the rich could afford to go to church, I think that would be socially unfair.”
Schock-Werner, who oversaw conservation and restoration work on the building until his retirement in 2012, said it was “very, very unfortunate” that Germany’s most famous church would soon charge tourists an entrance fee.
“There should also be non-commercial spaces. People should not have to pay for everything, much less to visit a church,” he said.
Inflation and high staff costs for 170 employees have driven up the price of building maintenance, the cathedral management says.
Meanwhile, cash reserves used to cover funding shortfalls in recent years have largely been depleted, partly because paying tours of the cathedral’s 157-metre towers and treasury chamber were suspended for long periods during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Church officials have made savings, such as reducing staff through attrition, but the numbers still don’t add up.
The maintenance of the cathedral costs 16 million euros a year, while income only reached just under 14 million euros in 2024, a deficit that has persisted since 2019, according to the church website.
People entering the nave to attend services, light candles or pray in most areas will be exempt from the new admission fee.
The cathedral’s dean, Guido Assmann, told German news agency dpa that tourists make up 99% of visitors.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1248 and was completed in 1880. It joined the list of Unesco world heritage sites in 1996 and attracts about six million visitors each year.
The building dominates Cologne’s main train station on the banks of the Rhine and is the most recognizable symbol of the city skyline.
It stands as a reminder of resilience in a city that was subjected to continuous Allied bombing during the Second World War, including the first attack by 1,000 RAF bombers in 1942. Although badly damaged, the cathedral remained standing amid a landscape of rubble.
In 2007, pixelated stained glass windows custom designed by painter Gerhard Richter were installed. Sunlight through the 20-meter windows, which are themselves a tourist attraction, casts bright shadows on the mosaic floors.
Richter, 94, told dpa that he was in favor of charging fees to church visitors, noting that other large cathedrals such as Milan had long collected such revenues.
In Germany, most churches are freely accessible to the public, although there are exceptions. Berlin Cathedral charges €15 for a standard ticket, while major cathedrals in other European cities are much more expensive, such as Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia for €26 and Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral for €29.
Another major European tourist attraction, Rome’s Trevi Fountain, has started charging visitors. The aim of the 2 euro entrance fee introduced last month is to help authorities manage crowds and pay for the maintenance of the monument. In 2025 alone, more than 10 million people visited the Trevi.
