Neighbourhood Kotor, Montenegro
Cats in Kotor Old Town
A walled medieval port at the end of a fjord, where the cats arrived on ships, stayed for the rats, and ended up on the souvenirs, the flag of a museum, and every step of the fortress stairs.
Where to find cats in Kotor Old Town: The walled old town of Kotor, on the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, twenty minutes from Tivat airport. When: Early morning before the cruise ships unload, or the evening after they leave. May, June, September, October for the weather. Why here: A city that put a cat on its coat of merchandise, opened a museum to them, and keeps a square where feeding is official.
The short version
- Where
- The walled old town of Kotor, on the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, twenty minutes from Tivat airport
- When
- Early morning before the cruise ships unload, or the evening after they leave. May, June, September, October for the weather
- How long
- Half a day for the town and the cats. Add two hours and a lot of water for the fortress steps
- What it costs
- The old town is free. The Cats Museum is one euro. The fortress climb has a ticket
- Why here
- A city that put a cat on its coat of merchandise, opened a museum to them, and keeps a square where feeding is official
What to bring
- One euro, then moreFor the museum door, and the food-donation box just inside it. Euros are the currency.
- Dry food, if you want to feedOnly at the square by St Mary’s, which is the official spot. Not in the lanes, and not in front of restaurants.
- Shoes for 1,350 stepsThe fortress path is stone, uneven, and has cats resting on it the whole way up.
- The cruise ship scheduleTwo ships in port turns the lanes into a queue. The cats go up the walls and wait it out.
Why there are cats everywhere
The cats came by ship, for the rats, and never left.
Kotor was a Venetian port for four centuries, and every ship that tied up under the walls carried cats to keep the grain and the rats apart. Cats came ashore, the rats came ashore, and the town, which is a triangle of stone between a mountain and the sea with nowhere for anything to go, kept both. The cats are still doing the job. Locals will tell you the town has never had a plague of rats, and they mean it as thanks.
Somewhere along the way the cat became the symbol. Not officially, in the way of a flag, but in the way that matters: on the postcards, the tea towels, the doorway paintings, and finally a museum. The Cats Museum, in a former monastery on the little square of Gospa od Anđela, is a room of cat postcards, prints, coins and newspaper cuttings. It costs one euro to enter and the euro goes to feeding the animals outside. There is a box at the door for tins.
The feeding is organised, not casual. The square beside St Mary Collegiate church, at the fortress end of town, is the recognised place to put food down, and the cats know it, which is why that is where the most of them are. A volunteer charity, Kotor Kitties, runs free spay and neuter clinics so that the number stays a number the town can feed.
What you will notice first is not any of that. It is that there are cats on every flight of steps, in every doorway that catches the sun, and along the top of every wall, and that the town is built entirely of steps, doorways and walls.
The walk
In through the Sea Gate, across the main square, up to the museum and the cathedral, along to the feeding square under the mountain, and then, if you have the legs, up the fortress steps with the cats. An hour on the flat, three with the climb.
- From Tivat airportTaxi or bus along the bay20 minThe nearest airport. Taxis are metered in theory; agree a price at the rank.
- From DubrovnikBus across the border150 minTwo to three hours depending on the border queue. Sit on the right for the bay.
- From BudvaBus over the hill30 minFrequent, cheap, and the way most people come for the day.
The Sea Gate
The main gate in the western wall, facing the harbour. Through it and you are in the old town, which has no cars and no straight streets. The cats start immediately: look at the base of the wall to your right.
The Sea Gate. Everything inside is on foot.Desemeus, CC BY-SA 4.0 Armoury Square
The big square inside the gate, with the clock tower. Cafes on all sides and their cats under the tables. This is the busy end; the cats here are the tame ones.
Inside the walls. The mountain is always at the end of the street.Aleks.milo, CC BY-SA 4.0 The Cats Museum
On the small square of Gospa od Anđela, in a former monastery, a few lanes north. One euro at the door. Give it twenty minutes, put a tin in the box, and come out to the cats it feeds.
Outside the museum. This is who the euro is for.Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 St Tryphon’s Cathedral
The twin-towered cathedral from 1166, the town’s centrepiece. The cats prefer the square in front of it in the morning, when the sun is on the steps and the tour groups have not arrived.
The lanes between the squares. Check every doorstep.Milica Buha, CC BY-SA 4.0 St Mary’s and the feeding square
At the far end of town, under the mountain, beside St Mary Collegiate church. This is the recognised place to feed the cats and it is where the most of them gather. Sit on the church steps; you will be joined.
Near the feeding square. Well fed, and it shows.Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 The fortress steps
The ticket gate is just past St Mary’s. 1,350 stone steps to the fortress of St John, with a cat asleep on roughly every fiftieth one. Go early, take water, and stop at the Church of Our Lady of Remedy halfway for the view and the cats that live at it.
From the steps. The old town is the triangle; the cats are in it.Jaakko Luttinen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Thousands, by local reckoning, in a town you can cross in ten minutes. Mixed-breed Mediterranean cats, tabbies and gingers and tortoiseshells, most of them neutered thanks to the charity clinics and most of them completely relaxed about you.
Wall cats
Any colour, usually asleep, always above head height.
The tops of the walls catch the sun first and the cats know it. Look up.
Step cats
Tabbies mostly, stretched flat on warm stone.
The fortress path is theirs. Step round, not over.
Restaurant cats
The best fed cats in Montenegro.
Under the cafe tables on the squares. They have a system and you are part of it.
Kittens
In doorways and under steps in spring.
Fewer than there were, because of the clinics, which is the point of the clinics.
Everybody says Kotor’s cats are strays that need rescuing.
Actually They are a managed population that the town feeds, neuters and is openly proud of. Taking one home is possible, through the charities, with paperwork. Picking one up and carrying it off is theft, and somebody will say so.
How not to be the annoying one
- Feed only at the square by St Mary’s, which is the recognised place, and only dry food. Food in the lanes brings the cats into the restaurants and the restaurants do not thank you.
- Step round a cat on the fortress stairs, not over it. There will be a lot of them and the drop is real.
- The museum box takes tins and pouches, not coins. The euro at the door is the coin.
- Let them come. Kotor cats are used to being photographed and will pose; they are less used to being grabbed.
- If you want to help properly, Kotor Kitties takes donations and volunteers for the clinics.
