Cologne Cathedral, one of Germany’s best-known landmarks, to charge tourists for admission

BERLIN (AP) — Cologne Cathedral, a famous German landmark and popular tourist draw, will start charging an admission fee to visitors as church officials struggle with rising maintenance costs.

The Catholic cathedral’s chapter announced Thursday that it will start charging the fee in the second half of this year, but didn’t specify how high it will be.

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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 around 6 million visitors per year.

Inflation and rising personnel costs have led to a constant increase in the price of the upkeep of the building, the cathedral chapter said. The cathedral plans spending this year of around 16 million euros ($18.6 million).

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 couldn’t 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 can’t 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.