International popularity and high demand for cathedral tours
Annual results 2025: Aachen offers the most self-organised tours of all German cathedral churches
Aachen Cathedral continues to attract visitors from all over the world: around 1.25 million people visited in 2025. The cathedral treasury welcomed over 90,000 guests. Even though no new records were set, interest in Germany’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site remains unbroken.
Guided tours were particularly popular in the spring and summer months: May was the peak month with a total of 540 tours of the cathedral and cathedral treasury, while January saw the lowest demand due to seasonal factors, with 259 tours. Up to 20 people can take part in a guided tour. A total of 5,300 guided tours took place – more than 3,000 of which were public cathedral tours, most of which are sold on site on a daily basis. International popularity grew noticeably. English, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch guided tours increased significantly compared to the previous year.
A third of all tickets for public tours are already sold digitally
Jean-Claude Kall, Head of Information and Visitor Services, cites one key reason for this: “We attribute this trend to the introduction of online ticketing in March 2025. Since then, visitors have been able to conveniently book their tours online up to four weeks in advance – and they are making good use of this option: around a third of all tickets for public tours are already sold digitally, and the proportion is even higher for foreign-language tours!”
The monthly children’s tours of the cathedral, as well as special group and combination tours, complement the offering and make the cathedral attractive to people of all ages.
Kall highlights another special feature: “Among the cathedral churches in German-speaking countries, we offer the most self-organised tours – i.e. those organised by the cathedral chapter and not by the city’s tourist office or independent guides.’
Dean Rolf-Peter Cremer is delighted with this development. ‘The 2025 annual report shows impressively that Aachen Cathedral is not only a place of contemplation and worship, but also a lively centre for culture, education and international encounters – and online ticketing has opened the doors to an even wider audience.’