Is it wrong—or at least morally murky—to impose entrance fees for accessing certain spaces?
That's a question being debated in Germany following a recent announcement that Cologne Cathedral will soon begin charging visitors for admission.
The twin-spired Gothic landmark (Kölner Dom in German) draws around 6 million tourists each year in the Rhine-spanning city in western Germany. The Catholic church is expected to start selling tickets for entry starting in July. Officials haven't specified yet what the cost will be, but estimates suggest something in the neighborhood of €12 to €15 (about $14 to $17).
Revenue from the fee will go toward building upkeep, per officials. They say the admission charge is necessary due to inflation, staffing costs, and the long stretch during the Covid-19 pandemic when nobody was paying to tour the building's towers and treasury, which already require visitors to buy tickets.
But the plan to charge admission to enter the main area of the church itself doesn't sit well with critics—not on religious grounds but due to equity concerns.
Worshippers attending services and praying in certain areas will be exempt from the fee, the Associated Press reports. But the 99% of visitors who are tourists will need to pony up an amount some outraged observers have deemed unfair.
“If only the well-off can afford to go into a church, I think that’s socially unjust," Barbara Schock-Werner of the nonprofit Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln (ZDV) association told reporters.
Schock-Werner isn't just some crank, either. She's an architect who oversaw conservation and restoration work on the cathedral until her retirement in 2012, according to The Guardian. The ZDV organization represents 19,000 members dedicated to the building's conservation.
Calling the ticketing plan "very, very regrettable," Schock-Werner argued that "there must also be noncommercial spaces. People shouldn’t have to pay for everything—least of all for visiting a church."
Other famous European churches already charge entrance fees
Another prominent artistic figure connected to the cathedral has backed the entrance fee, however.
Gerhard Richter, whose crowd-pleasing abstract stained glass window was installed at the church in 2007, told reporters he approved of the upcoming fee.
The 94-year-old artist pointed out, by way of justification, that many famous churches across Europe have introduced such charges, including the Duomo in Milan; the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain; St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna; and Westminster Abbey in London.
Though paying to enter a church remains rare in Germany, Berlin Cathedral does charge €15 ($17) for a standard ticket. That church also classifies the charge as a "cathedral maintenance fee."
Does this constitute a pay-to-pray system that unfairly excludes some visitors in direct violation of the egalitarian teachings of Christianity's namesake?
Or are entrance fees a necessary evil for historic churches that need to fund upkeep of aging facilities (construction on the Cologne Cathedral began in 1248) expected to accommodate millions of visitors per year?
Those are the sorts of questions that drive a devil's bargain.