Residents and community are arguing about the fate of an 18-year-old street cat who was driven out of one of the medieval city’s palaces in fine weather.
An animal dispute that reaches back to high places and makes the rounds in the international press. Dubrovnik, the pearl of the Adriatic in Croatia, is torn over the fate of Anastasia, an 18-year-old street cat recently evicted from one of the medieval city’s finest palaces.
Appreciated by the many tourists who visit ancient Ragusa, the tricolor cat had chosen to spend its time under the arches of the Rector’s Palace, a 14th-century architectural marvel. It was first installed in a cardboard box in 2021, then this year in a wooden niche, furnished at the end of March by Srdjan Kera, a Dubrovnik resident, in the same half-Gothic, half-Renaissance style as the palace, with a red velvet cushion and stamped with a plaque with the cat’s name, “Anastasia”.
The Dubrovnik museum management, located in the palace, tolerated the device in winter and demanded the removal of the niche with the arrival of spring. An episode that repeated itself in 2021 and then this year, much to the chagrin of animal rights activists. No one is entitled to damage “the unique and historical whole” of Dubrovnik, “particularly by building accommodation or living spaces,” defended the museum management in a press release.
During the winter months there aren’t many tourists in town, so the kennel doesn’t bother anyone. Now the season has just started: the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra is giving concerts in the palace, and having this shelter is not appropriate. We expect exhibitions, book launches and other events. When the cold returns, we will return the niche as agreed,” the museum’s management announced to the Total News Croatia website at the end of March.
Mobilization of social networks
The decision triggered heated debates in the 44,000-inhabitant community. Calls for the protection of the animal, which had already been driven out of a makeshift shelter last year, are increasing on social networks. Anastasia needs her house! give him his house! Cultural institutions are apparently run by people without culture, said a surfer on Facebook. Proponents cite the cat-friendly policies of other museum monuments from the Hermitage in Russia to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
In an online poll organized by a local newspaper, 90% of the 4,500 participants agreed that the niche under the palace’s vaults should remain. “It’s my house. It’s just a cat, it’s not 70,” says Srdjan Kera.
The mayor says stray cats don’t have to be “housed” by the city
But Dubrovnik Mayor Mato Frankovic rushed to the museums’ aid, noting that the city is home to many stray cats and can be proud that they are all “well-fed” and not “skinny”. It shows how this city coexists with animals. Why should we accommodate them now? We don’t build lofts for the pigeons.”
The cat, meanwhile, has her own Facebook page, “Kneginja Anastazija” (Princess Anastasia), and an online petition calling for the return of her home had garnered nearly 12,000 signatures as of Saturday.