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

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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, according to an announcement on Thursday.

The Catholic cathedral's chapter said 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 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 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 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 can not 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, Guido Assmann, said tourists account for about 99% of visitors, the German news agency dpa reported.