Steeple Climb — Attraction in Cologne

It's not about the views, it's about the massiveness of the towers!

I love climbing towers and I could not miss visiting the second-tallest spires of any church in the world! The entrance was located on the south side of the cathedral, underneath the ground floor and was accessible via a tunnel. As this is a frequently visited landmark, the queue was long, luckily I had purchased a combined ticket for 6€ earlier at the cathedrals treasury, therefore I did not wait, just went through and started my climb.

The staircase was wide enough for two way traffic, however traffic jams occur anyway as some people were slower than others. It was a long and demanding walk to reach the top platform, after all 509 stairs needed to be conquered to reach the platform at a height of 97 meters above the ground level. As I have said, for me it was not about the views, it was about the towers themselves and how gargantuous and monumental they are. The amount of space nearly hundred meters high was just enormous, something that is more of a domain of skyscrapers, not centuries old gothic cathedrals. It is hard to believe how this was built without modern technology and looking up into the void gothic spires was just breathtaking. It felt unreal to be here.

Up at the highest platform a one way system of traffic was applied, which was a brilliant idea as the space there was limited. The raised wooden platform provided better views, but was all surrounded with a square mesh fence, therefore quite difficult to take pictures with an SLR camera or any camera with a big lens.

The views were not that good from up there - the most iconic place to see from up here was the Hohenzollern bridge (the arch bridge full of love locks), but the rest of the skyline was pretty flat apart from the local TV tower and a couple of high rise buildings. Although I did get chills just looking down at the square, I was almost unable to recognize each individual human being! Also observing the north tower and many of its side spires was worth the time.

On the way down I stopped to see the bells (or on the way up, your choice), mainly a huge 24 ton big Saint Peter's bell which is the second largest freely swinging ringable bell in the world!

This was an absolutely surreal experience and totally worth every step! Paid by card. Visited in...

The views from the South Tower of Cologne Cathedral are fantastic, offering a great perspective of the city from above. My group and I were aware of the 533 steps, but it turned out to be more challenging than expected. One member of our group experienced high blood pressure and couldn’t make it to the top. The air becomes thick and stuffy, especially as the number of people on the staircase increases. I do have concerns about the safety of the climb, as there is no separation between people ascending and descending. We saw some elderly individuals and even children struggling to make it up the stairs, but it's hard to give up after paying €8 for a ticket 😅. Additionally, we initially thought the ticket would allow us to explore more of the upper parts of the cathedral, but it only grants access to the South Tower. That was our oversight for not checking the details beforehand, so I won't lower the rating for that. Overall, it was an...

We definitely thought it was worth the effort, just know what you are getting into since you are climbing to almost the top of one of the spires yourself on a spiral stone staircase. The view is great, it wasn't crowded at the top. The views are somewhat obstructed because it's not like you are in some observation deck with big windows, you're looking through smaller openings with chain link covering them, but it's still good stuff. It's also cool that you can see the bells up close, on the way down the bells went off so we got to see that up close in all their glory though who knows what kind of ear damage you are getting being that close hehe.

You have to be careful since the stairs you go up on are the same stairs you come down on, so you commonly have to squeeze past people coming the other direction in a...