Neighbourhood Split, Croatia
Cats in Split
A Roman emperor’s retirement palace that a whole town moved into, with a fish market the cats have staffed since the eighteen-nineties and a pine hill behind it where they go to be left alone.
Where to find cats in Split: The old town of Split, inside and around Diocletian’s Palace, the Riva, the fish market, and Marjan hill to the west. When: Early morning at the fish market, and evening on the Riva. May, June, September and October; July and August are a crush. Why here: Cats living inside a Roman palace that never stopped being lived in, fed by a fish market that is famous for having no flies.
The short version
- Where
- The old town of Split, inside and around Diocletian’s Palace, the Riva, the fish market, and Marjan hill to the west
- When
- Early morning at the fish market, and evening on the Riva. May, June, September and October; July and August are a crush
- How long
- A morning for the palace and the market. A day with Marjan
- What it costs
- Free. The palace is a neighbourhood, not a museum, though the cellars and the cathedral tower charge
- Why here
- Cats living inside a Roman palace that never stopped being lived in, fed by a fish market that is famous for having no flies
What to bring
- Seven in the morningThe fish market opens early and the cats are at the stalls before the buyers. By ten it is done.
- Shoes for polished stoneThe palace streets are limestone worn to glass by seventeen centuries. Wet, they are an ice rink.
- Nothing for the catsThe market feeds them better than you can. Save your money for the grilled fish afterwards.
- An afternoon for MarjanThe pine hill above the town is where the cats go to be quiet, and where you should too.
Why there are cats everywhere
In the year 305 an emperor retired to a palace on the Adriatic. The town moved in when he died, and the cats moved in with it.
Diocletian built himself a fortified palace to retire to, and when Rome fell apart the people of the nearby town moved inside the walls and never left. The palace is the old town: houses built into the emperor’s halls, a cathedral in his mausoleum, washing lines strung between Roman columns, and lanes so narrow the sun gets into them for an hour a day. Cats have lived in this kind of place, warm stone and a thousand hiding holes, since there was stone.
They are fed, mostly, by the fish market. The Ribarnica, on the west side of the old town, was built in the eighteen-nineties next to a sulphur spring, and the story every local tells is that the sulphur keeps the flies away, so the fish need no netting, so the market has no flies and, as a consequence, a permanent staff of cats. Whether the sulphur does it or not, the cats are there every morning, under the stalls and on the steps, and they are the best fed animals in Dalmatia.
The rest of the day they spread out: the Peristyle, where the tourists sit on the steps and the cats sit above them, the Riva along the harbour, the green market at the east gate, and Varoš, the old stone quarter climbing Marjan hill, where the lanes turn into steps and the cats turn into shadows. Marjan itself, the pine-covered hill above the town, is where they go to get away from all of it.
The walk
The fish market first, while it is open, then into the palace, out along the Riva, and up Marjan for the pines. Three hours, four with a swim.
- From Split airportBus 37 or the airport shuttle to the harbour40 minThe shuttle stops at the ferry port, a five-minute walk from the palace.
- From The ferry port or the railway stationWalk along the harbour5 minEverything arrives in one place, and the old town is in front of it.
- From Anywhere in the old townWalk5 minThe palace is two hundred metres across. You cannot get lost for long.
The fish market
The iron-and-glass hall on Obrov, west of the palace walls, open from early morning. Cats under the stalls, on the steps and along the wall outside. Go before nine; by ten the fish and the cats have gone.
Near the market, waiting. The stalls open early and so do they.Eleanor Abernathy, CC BY-SA 3.0 The Peristyle
Through the west gate into the emperor’s courtyard, columns and a sphinx from Egypt, with the cathedral in his mausoleum. Everyone sits on the steps. The cats sit on the ledges above them.
Inside the palace. Lanes the width of a cart, with a cat in most.Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0 The Riva
Out through the south wall onto the harbour promenade: palms, cafés, the ferries. Cats along the wall on the palace side in the evening, when the stone gives back the day’s heat.
The Riva. Palms, ferries, and warm stone at dusk.Fred Romero from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0 Varoš and Marjan
West along the harbour and up into Varoš, the old fishermen’s quarter of stone houses and steps below the hill, then onto Marjan itself. Cats in the lanes of Varoš; quiet and pines on the hill.
Varoš. Steps instead of streets, and cats on the steps.Eleanor Abernathy, CC BY-SA 3.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Dalmatian harbour cats: lean, short-coated, tabby and tortoiseshell and white, well fed on fish and wary of tourists in summer, when there are too many hands. Sociable at the market and on the Riva in the evening, private in Varoš.
Market cats
Under the stalls at the Ribarnica.
The staff. Fed, tolerated, and there at opening every morning.
Palace cats
On ledges and in the narrowest lanes.
Living in a Roman emperor’s house. They know it.
Varoš cats
On the stone steps below Marjan.
The quiet ones. Watch from a distance; do not follow into a courtyard.
Everybody says The sulphur keeps the flies away.
Actually Every local will tell you the spring by the market is why there are no flies and no netting. Nobody has proved it and nobody needs to. The cats are there either way, and they are the reason to get up early.
How not to be the annoying one
- The palace is people’s homes. The lanes are their front doors. Look, do not linger on a step that is somebody’s.
- At the market, stay out of the way of the sellers. The cats are working; so is everyone else.
- Do not feed on the Riva. The cafés do not want it and the gulls will take it first.
- Summer hands: a cat that walks away has answered you.
- Marjan is a park. Cats up there want the quiet, which is why they climbed.
