The Church of Ireland Cathedral of St Fin Barre in Cork is the latest Irish cathedral to charge an admission fee to visitors.
The mounting cost of maintaining a huge historic building with a diminishing congregation - insurance alone now costs nearly €1,000 a week - has forced the select vestry to follow the example of several other cathedrals in Ireland and abroad.
From this week a charge of €3 for adults (€1.50 for children) is expected at the small shop inside the entrance to St Fin Barre's, while those wishing to use the cathedral simply for prayer will be guided towards the dean's chapel in the transept.
Explaining the decision in a letter to the congregation, the Very Rev Michael Burrows, Dean of Cork, says that it was reached with a mixture of reluctance and realism.
"The simple truth is that we cannot afford not to do this. Our substantial diocesan assessment barely takes into account the fact that the mother church carries distinctive financial burdens - notably the maintenance of a choral foundation," he said.
He said diocesan finances were under considerable pressure, and "for better or worse we have got to seek income wherever we can find it and we must do it urgently". The dean said that the admission fee, properly handled, would not diminish the essential character of the cathedral as a place of prayer.
The conflict for St Fin Barre's, as for other architecturally important places of worship, is to maintain its functional integrity while welcoming tourists. While staff at the cathedral expect to welcome about 30,000 visitors annually, many of these arrive on coach-tours and leave without making any voluntary contribution at all.
Built of local limestone on the rocky escarpment regarded as the site of the 7th-century monastery and school of St Finbarr, from which the city of Cork was developed, this is the latest of a succession of cathedrals at this location. Its Victorian architect was the eccentric medievalist, William Burges, whose Romantic Gothic design took nearly 20 years from 1861 to complete at a cost more than six times the original estimate. Campaigning to raise the finance for an edifice which would proclaim not just the glory of God but the resurgence of the Anglican Church in Cork, the energetic Bishop John Gregg thrust the leading city merchants - especially prominent brewers and distillers - into a war of competitive donations.
Outwardly massive, the interior of the cathedral, lined with marble from Little Island and Fermoy and decorated with vibrant stained glass, wood and stone carvings and towering bishop's throne all designed by Burges, is small, narrow and dramatic, with its arched nave and soaring painted ceiling.
Services at the cathedral continue as before, with midday and evening prayers daily and choral Eucharist and choral Evensong on Sundays. So far the response of visitors to the new charge has been friendly.