Cologne Cathedral

What makes it special

The Shrine of the Three Kings stands behind the high altar, so on most days you see it only from a distance. Its front is opened to the public on one day a year, 6 January, the feast of the Magi.

The Gero Cross, a monumental wooden crucifix given by Archbishop Gero, hangs on the east wall of the Kreuzkapelle. In the Marienkapelle, Stefan Lochner's winged Altar of the City Patrons, painted for the city council's chapel, forms the centre of the chapel.

Gerhard Richter designed the coloured glazing of the south transept facade window, the large window at the end of that arm of the church.

The Treasury holds reliquaries, liturgical vessels and textiles made between the fourth and the twentieth century. UNESCO added the cathedral to the World Heritage List in 1996.

Visiting

Sightseeing stops while Mass is said, so on a Sunday the church is open to sightseers only in the afternoon. On weekdays the last morning Mass is at nine, an hour before sightseeing begins.

With your ticket, go into the church and find the Kreuzkapelle with the Gero Cross and the Marienkapelle with Lochner's altar. Walk on to the high altar and the shrine behind it, then turn to the south transept for the Richter window.

The Treasury and the tower each need their own ticket, or one combined ticket covers both. Visit the Treasury next, then finish with the tower, whose entrance is down a staircase beside the south tower.

Guided or on your own

All tours inside the cathedral must be booked ahead, and only authorised or registered cathedral guides may lead them. Tours are booked through DOMFORUM, the cathedral's official partner, from the cathedral's ticket site, and the interior tours include one in English.

A tour does not replace the entry ticket: you need a cathedral ticket as well. Special tours also go up onto the roof, into the excavations, to the bells and through the cathedral at night.

Tips

Save some strength for the descent, which on these narrow stairs can be harder than the way up. The final stretch to the platform is a one-way wooden stair, and safety mesh is fitted at the top.

If you have a KölnCard, it brings down the price of the Treasury ticket, though not of the ticket for the church itself. Lochner's altar is in daily use for Mass, so go round the Marienkapelle quietly if a service is about to start there.