Neighbourhood Dubrovnik, Croatia
Cats in Dubrovnik Old Town
A walled city on the Adriatic that has kept cats since the fourteenth century and calls them its noble cats. Off the main street, into the side lanes, where they have always been.
Where to find cats in Dubrovnik Old Town: The walled old town of Dubrovnik, at the southern tip of Croatia, between Pile Gate and the Old Port. When: Early morning and evening, when the cruise ships are not in. May, June, September and October for the weather and the walls. Why here: A city that has protected its cats for seven hundred years and gave them a name, gospodske mačke, the noble cats.
The short version
- Where
- The walled old town of Dubrovnik, at the southern tip of Croatia, between Pile Gate and the Old Port
- When
- Early morning and evening, when the cruise ships are not in. May, June, September and October for the weather and the walls
- How long
- Two hours for the lanes and the cats. A day if you walk the walls and swim off the rocks
- What it costs
- The old town is free. The walls have a ticket. The cats are in the free part
- Why here
- A city that has protected its cats for seven hundred years and gave them a name, gospodske mačke, the noble cats
What to bring
- Dry cat food from Konzum or PemoThe supermarkets inside the walls sell it. Human food from your plate is the thing the locals will tell you off for.
- The cruise timetableTwo ships in port puts ten thousand people on one street. The cats leave the Stradun and so should you.
- Shoes with gripThe stone is polished by centuries of feet and it is glass in the rain. The side lanes are all steps.
- A euro or two for the charitySOS Dubrovnik Cats does the neutering and the vet bills. It is a UK charity; you can give from home.
Why there are cats everywhere
Dubrovnik calls its cats the noble cats, and has done for centuries.
The Republic of Ragusa, as it was until Napoleon, was a maritime city-state that lived by ships, and ships carried cats. The city records mention them from the 1300s. They kept the rats off the grain and the plague, in theory, off the city, and the citizens of a place that prided itself on order and good manners extended those to the animals. Gospodske mačke, they called them: the lordly cats, the gentlefolk’s cats. The name is still in use.
Today the old town is a stone maze of steep lanes climbing either side of the Stradun, the wide central street, and the cats live in the lanes. The courtyard of the Church of the Holy Annunciation, just off the Stradun, is the best-known gathering place: a sunny stone yard where a dozen may be lying about at once. The Old Port at the eastern end, where the fishing boats come in, is the other. Between them, on any side street with a sunny doorstep, there will be one.
They are looked after, and organised. SOS Dubrovnik Cats, a UK-registered charity, runs trap-neuter-return, pays vet bills and finds fosters for the injured. There is a cat-themed souvenir shop inside the walls that puts part of its takings towards feeding them. And residents put food out in the lanes, quietly, in the way of a city that has done it for seven hundred years and does not want to be thanked.
The honest note is that the old town is now one of the most visited places in Europe, and the cats have adapted by leaving the main street to the people. Get off the Stradun, and they are there.
The walk
In at Pile Gate, down the Stradun, off it into the church courtyard, along to the Old Port, and out through Ploče. Two hours, and most of them on the side streets.
- From Dubrovnik airportShuttle bus or taxi to Pile Gate30 minTwenty kilometres down the coast. The shuttle meets flights and drops at Pile.
- From The bus station at GružBus 1A or 1B to Pile15 minWhere the long-distance buses and the cruise ships land. Every ten minutes.
- From KotorBus across the border150 minThe other cat city. Two to three hours, depending on the queue at the frontier.
Pile Gate
The western gate, where the buses stop and everybody enters. Through it and down the steps to the Stradun. The first cats are on the steps to the right, in the shade of the wall.
Off the main street immediately. This is where they live.Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0 The Stradun
The wide, white, polished main street, end to end in five minutes. Beautiful, and no cats: too many feet. Use it to cross the town, and turn off it as soon as a lane looks quiet.
The Stradun. Cross it; do not walk it.Sean MacEntee from Monaghan, Ireland, CC BY 2.0 The Church of the Holy Annunciation
A few steps south of the Stradun on Od Puča. The stone courtyard of the Orthodox church is the cats’ living room. Sit on the low wall. If there is one place in the old town to be certain of cats, it is this one.
The courtyard. Noble cats, at rest.LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0 The Old Port
The harbour at the eastern end, inside the walls, where the fishing boats and the island ferries come in. Cats on the quay in the evening, waiting for the boats, exactly as they have for seven hundred years.
Near the harbour. The boats come in at dusk and so do the cats.AleGranholm, CC BY 2.0 The steps to Ploče
Up the steep lanes on the eastern side to the Ploče gate. Doorsteps, washing lines and cats in the last of the sun. Buža bar is through a hole in the wall on the southern side if you want to finish on the rocks.
The steps, at night, when the town is the cats’ again.Furkan Akkurt, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Mediterranean street cats, tabby and ginger and tortoiseshell, most of them neutered by the charity and all of them used to a million visitors a year. They are calm to the point of indifference and will let you sit down next to them. They will not follow you onto the Stradun.
Courtyard cats
Any colour, flat out on warm stone.
The Annunciation church yard. A dozen at a time in the afternoon.
Harbour cats
Leaner, greyer, alert.
The Old Port quay in the evening, when the boats come in.
Doorstep cats
Rounder than the others, and slower to move.
Up the stepped lanes, outside the houses that feed them. Somebody’s, in the Dubrovnik sense.
Everybody says The cats are everywhere in Dubrovnik.
Actually They are everywhere that is not the Stradun. On a day with two cruise ships in, the main street is a river of people and the cats have gone up the side lanes and stayed there. Turn off it, and the town is the one in the photographs.
How not to be the annoying one
- Dry food from the supermarket, not food from your plate. The restaurants have to chase off cats that have learned to beg, and it is the visitors who teach them.
- The church courtyard is a churchyard. Sit on the wall, keep your voice down, and let them come.
- Do not carry a cat onto the walls for a photo. It has happened. It is a long way down.
- Give to SOS Dubrovnik Cats if you want to help. They are the ones paying the vet.
- On a cruise ship day, do the lanes early or late. The cats have the same plan.
