Illuminating York

And for your edifice illumination from York Minster

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Posted by Ann Fontaine on November 16, 2010 9:30 PM | |
Comments (4)

Inside the Minster are toll-booths for selling tickets to tour the church. That does not seem right, but I bought my tickets, anyway. Later that evening, I attended Evensong, which was lovely, and I did not have to pay.

I know that costs to maintain a building like the Minster are high, but toll-booths inside the church seem the wrong way to go. One English lady told me that she won't enter the Minster, on principle, even for services, because of the charge to enter. She said, "You shouldn't have to pay to enter a church."

For the Archbishop of York to sell the church as a tourist attraction seems a bit unseemly, too.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 16, 2010 10:35 PM

Yes, June upkeep of a cathedral is very expensive, and tourists gladly pay for everything else they enter. The cathedrals have become tourist attractions, but as you say, you came for a service and were admitted free of charge. And if you had stayed and looked around they wouldn't have charged you. But so many people just come to see it for the architecture or art and such. They are holy places, but I think of them also as museums, and I pay gladly for museums.

Posted by Susan Hedges [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 16, 2010 11:00 PM

I would rather pay to see the Minster -- and the other cathedrals -- now in all their glory than to see them only as bare ruins in times to come. Admission for services is free -- and there is alsways ample time, even after evensong, for a liesurely wander around the place.

Posted by Carol Horton [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 17, 2010 8:28 AM

This spring we were at St. Mark's, Venice. No charge to enter the cathedral but charges to see the treasury, the back of the altar, the gallery, etc. once one was in. These are such marvelous witnesses to the Christian faith, I really don't mind a charge that is generally paltry compared to visiting a museum or stately home.

Posted by Paul Woodrum [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 17, 2010 9:09 AM

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