Cathedrals
 

Are there any days of the week that Cathedrals are NOT open?

A Roman Catholic cathedral will be open every day of the year as all Roman Catholic churches. It just depends on at what time. The times will be indicated close to the front door. Try to find out when you get to your destination. It is, after all, a place of worship and will be open.

If you mean visiting them as a tourist, most will not be open for casual visiting all or most of every Sunday,<BR>and holy days.

Not completely true. A Roman Catholic cathedral or church won't be open for visiting per se during a mass or wedding or baptism or funeral, for example (i.e. walking around the church because it's disrespectful), but if you stand in the vestibule, it's rare anyone would object.

we all agree that the word is accessible and not 'open'. for example, Notre Dame in Paris is always open during the day but during services, the tourist flow is kept to the back of the church. In Prague, on the other hand, the cathedral at the Palace is closed to all tourist movement during services- nobody in or out and this is strictly controlled. <BR>Unfortunately, I know of no guidebook or web site that covers this times of free access situation for all of europe.

Not totally germaine to the topic, but you might not know some churches (especially Italian) have a strict dress code. I remember in the sweltering heat at St Marc's in Venice they were turning sleeveless tourists away by the hordes. One ingenious lady, not to be turned away at the door, calmly reached up her skirt, pulled her slip down,stepped out of it and draped it over her shoulders...no problem, in they let her!

There is no sure way of knowing when a particular church or cathedral will be open for visiting, short of calling ahead. By their very nature, funerals, weddings, memorial services/masses and other civic services take place as occasions demand, sometimes at short notice, and visiting is either banned or frowned upon.<BR>There are a few church buildings which are no longer ordinarily used for worship, and they tend to keep standard published hours for visiting, often with an entrance charge. I believe the Basilica of St-Denis near Paris is one, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (a national monument).