Cologne Cathedral Now Charges for Entry — What Visitors Need to Know

Since 1 July 2026, visiting Cologne Cathedral as a sightseer requires a ticket. Adult admission to the interior is €12; reduced tickets of €6 apply to students, apprentices and pupils aged 14 and over. Children under 14 and people with a severe disability enter free, as do members of the Central Cathedral Building Association.

The cathedral chapter says the fee is needed to cover the rising cost of maintaining, operating and securing the building. It does not apply to worship: anyone attending a service, coming to pray, lighting a candle or visiting the Blessed Sacrament Chapel can still walk in free through the North Portal entrance on the side facing Cologne Hauptbahnhof, generally open from 06:00 to 20:00.

Ticketed sightseeing runs daily from 10:00 to 17:45 (last entry 17:30), and from 13:30 to 16:30 on Sundays and public holidays. Tickets for the interior, the tower and the Treasury are sold online up to three months ahead, at most nine per order, or in person at the Central Ticket Office in the Kurienhaus at Roncalliplatz 2, open 09:00–17:30.

There are still free days for everyone: from Epiphany on 6 January until the following Sunday, on 1 May, and on 3 October, German Unity Day. With 3 October just gone, the next free window opens on 6 January 2027.

The square outside hasn't changed. TravelHub's own Kölner Dom walk, filmed on a busy summer afternoon, circles the west front and Roncalliplatz — the part of the cathedral experience that is still, and will remain, free.