One of the world’s oldest and most famous buildings will soon have a €3 admission fee—when Rome authorities figure out where to put the ticket booth.
The 1900-year-old building, a temple to all the Roman gods, is one of the world’s marvels, and a UNESCO heritage site. It is not only perhaps the world’s best-preserved Roman building, but until the 20th century, its dome was the world’s largest free-standing dome. It gets over 30,000 visitors a day on average.
The fee is intended to support upkeep of the building, and to pass 20% on to the city’s Solidarity Fund for the disadvantaged. Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini supports the idea, saying “I do not see why to go to the Colosseum you have to pay for a ticket [but to] enter the Pantheon, no.”
Critics of the fee have focused less on the idea of a fee than on the as-yet-unresolved problem of where to put a ticket office without creating an eyesore or excess congestion.
Photo: KlausF/Wikimedia
