Cologne Cathedral and the Hohenzollern Bridge — plan your visit during these hours
Kölner Dom visiting hours 2026
The building is generally open daily from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Tourist interior visits are shorter: Monday–Saturday 10:00 AM–5:45 PM (last entry 5:30 PM) and Sundays/holidays 1:30 PM–4:30 PM (last entry 4:15 PM). Confirm same-day access before you travel.
Hours checked: 16 August 2026
Cologne Cathedral and the Hohenzollern Bridge — plan your visit during these hours
For sightseeing, 10:00 Monday to Saturday and 13:30 on Sundays and public holidays. The building itself is generally open from 6:00, but that is not when tourist visits begin — turn up at 07:00 and you will not be able to look round.
This catches people out constantly, because "open from 6:00" is the figure that circulates. Two different things are being described: when the doors are unlocked, and when ticketed sightseeing runs. The second is the one that matters if you have come to see the building.
Sightseeing ends at 17:45 Monday to Saturday (last entry 17:30) and 16:30 on Sundays and holidays (last entry 16:15). The building generally closes at 20:00.
The tower and the treasury keep their own hours and they are not the same:
| Area | Hours | Last entry |
|---|---|---|
| Interior, Mon–Sat | 10:00 – 17:45 | 17:30 |
| Interior, Sun & holidays | 13:30 – 16:30 | 16:15 |
| Tower, Mar–Oct | 9:00 – 18:00 | 17:30 |
| Tower, Nov–Feb | 9:00 – 16:00 | 15:30 |
| Treasury | 10:00 – 18:00 | 17:30 |
Last entry is the number to plan around, not closing time. Arriving fifteen minutes before the door shuts means not getting in at all.
Almost certainly — it opens virtually every day of the year. But which hours apply depends on whether today is a weekday, a Sunday or a public holiday, and the interior can close at short notice for events.
For a same-day visit, check the cathedral's own daily notice rather than any timetable — including this one. Published hours describe the normal pattern; the daily notice describes today.
Yes. Anyone can visit. Since 1 July 2026 sightseeing inside the cathedral needs a ticket — €12 regular, €6 reduced, free for under-14s — which is a change from how it worked for most of its history. The Domplatte outside is public space: free, open, no ticket, any hour. See tickets.
Yes — but the visiting window is much shorter. Sunday sightseeing runs 13:30 to 16:30, last entry 16:15. That is three hours, against roughly eight on a weekday. Public holidays follow the same shortened pattern.
If you have one day in Cologne and it is a Sunday, plan the cathedral interior for early afternoon and do the tower or the treasury around it — both keep their normal hours.
Hours on major holidays are not the standard ones, and sightseeing access can be reduced or unavailable for parts of the day. This guide will not print fixed Christmas Day hours, because they vary and getting them wrong would send someone across a city for a closed door. Check the cathedral's daily notice for that specific date.
Quietest time to go: a weekday morning shortly after 10:00. The middle of the afternoon is the busiest, and Sunday's short window concentrates everyone into three hours.
(Last entry: 5:30 PM)
(Last entry: 5:30 PM)
(Last entry: 5:30 PM)
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Last entry: Tower admission ends 30 minutes before closing. Treasury last entry is 5:30 PM. Visitor access can change at short notice, so check the official daily notice before travelling.
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Tourist access may change during:
Tourist visits generally begin at 10:00 AM. On Sundays and public holidays, the tourist window generally begins at 1:30 PM. The tower and treasury open at 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM respectively.
Tourist visits generally end at 5:45 PM, with last entry at 5:30 PM. On Sundays and public holidays, the tourist window ends at 4:30 PM, with last entry at 4:15 PM. The tower and treasury have their own last-entry times.
Yes. The regular tourist window on Sundays and public holidays is generally 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM, with last entry at 4:15 PM. Check the official notice before travelling because access can change.
The cathedral tourist window is generally the same year-round. Tower hours are seasonal: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM from March through October and 9:00 AM–4:00 PM from November through February. Treasury hours are generally 10:00 AM–6:00 PM daily.
Holiday hours and tourist access can differ from the regular schedule. Check the official cathedral notice for the specific date before travelling.
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Plan your complete visit with our guides
Same-day access notices are published by the cathedral administration at koelner-dom.de.