Cat House

Cat House This building is located in the central part of the Old Town of Riga, built in 1909 by the architect Friedrich Scheffel in the style of late rational Art Nouveau.

Both cats on the building called “Cat House” are extremely symmetrical, they adorn the turrets above the intersections of Meistaru and Maza Smilsu (Malaya Peschanaya) and Meistaru – Zirgu (Horse) streets. The central facade of the building is distinguished by its symmetrical composition; in the middle of it is a sculptural symbolic image of an eagle with spread wings, ready to soar into the sky – this image is also made in accordance with the principle of a central point of symmetry; it is a symbolic indication of an eternal struggle until a victorious end is reached. The eagle is able to look at the sun without blinking, which was one of the reasons for recognizing this bird as a key solar symbol – this functional content contributed to the official inclusion of the eagle in the concept of modern symbolism.

There is an old legend that has not been verified by anyone, according to which the wealthy homeowner Blumer (Plume), unhappy that he was not allowed to become a member of the Riga Big Guild, the representative body of the Riga merchants, undertook an act of psychological retaliation. He ordered sculptural images of black cats with arched backs and placed them on the pointed pedestals of his apartment building, located on the opposite side of Meistaru Street (at the modern address Meistaru Street 10/12). However, these cats, to top off the picture, were turned with their tails towards the windows of the office of the elder of the Big Guild, so the non-diplomatic aspect was precisely in the most vulnerable spot.

According to one of the traditional excursion tales, a lawsuit was launched against Blumer, but legal measures failed to get Blumer to deploy the cats. Blumer was a good friend of a judge, or he paid generous bribes to frequently changing judges, who in a sentence with all responsibility declared that these cats walk on their own, they are free animals and without them Riga will lose some of its architectural wealth. It is difficult to say when the world was concluded with an obstinate and unyielding gentleman by the name of Blumer (Plume), but in the end, sooner or later, the cats were deployed with the “right” angle.