Skift Take
Using a new fee and rules for tourists, Turkey is trying to preserve and improve the experience of worshippers at Hagia Sophia.
Tourists can’t visit Hagia Sophia for free anymore. Since Monday, foreign tourists have had to pay an admission fee of €25 (about $27) to enter the mosque and UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Hagia Sophia has admitted tourists free of charge since 2020 when the government designated it a mosque and restarted Muslim worship there. It was built nearly 1,500 years ago as a Byzantine cathedral and is one of Turkey’s