Bidders to pay $6 million for Pope house

MARKTL AM INN, Germany, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Bidders have offered more than $6 million for the birth-house of Pope Benedict XVI, Deutsche Welle reported Tuesday.

Interested buyers include a Saudi Arabian sheikh, who wants to turn the nine-room house in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn into his summer residence, the company in charge of the sale, Trimedia, told Deutsche Welle.

The two-story house was built in 1745 and is on a list of protected buildings. It is valued at about $184,000, but the papal connection has dramatically increased the price, Deutsche Welle said.

The current owner decided to sell the house because she was fed up with the attention the property received after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was named pontiff in April. Tourists rang Claudia Dandl's doorbell in masses to visit the house.

Ratzinger was born in the home on April 16, 1927.