Szczecin’s top tourist attraction is this cat

He holds a perfect 5-star rating on Google reviews, so there must be something to him

The Eifel Tower draws in the crowds to Paris, the Colosseum brings them to Rome, but for the Polish city of Szczecin – it’s a black-and-white, chubby cat that does the trick. Yes, you read it right. In a day and age where online popularity decides it all, Google reviewers have decided that if you ever visit this city near the German-Polish border, you’d be a fool to skip on petting this friendly feline, who goes by the name of Gacek.

So popular is Gacek that as a proper tourist attraction, he has been marked with a spot on the city’s Google map so that you can find his residence. We could reveal that address here but do yourself a favour and have a look at the perfect 5-star glowing reviews by Google users.

Gacek changes the concept of an urban attraction

And not that Szczecin (the name of which may not be easy to pronounce for most non-Poles) is devoid of attractions on its own. After all, the city was the capital of the feudal Duchy of Pomerania until the 17^th century and that legacy can be seen in the Szczecin Castle and Hanseatic architecture.

But to modern-day tourists, none of these cultural delights holds a candle to the spectacle of Gacek the cat. Gacek, whose name means “long-eared bat” in Polish, lives independently in a wooden shelter built for him by shopkeepers.

The black-and-white feline has lived there for almost a decade but he only started acquiring viral and international fame after a Polish TV crew did a local news report about him three years ago.

Nowadays, his adoring fans have set up a Facebook and Instagram page, plus they marked him as a city attraction on Google Maps. Media reports have stated that people have travelled from as far as Norway to Szczecin with the sole reason of visiting Gacek.

Apparently, Google wasn’t too happy with that and removed his initial pin there but now it’s back.

However, some Szczecin residents are concerned. Marta Gluchowska, a nurse at the Szczecin Society for the Care of Animals, told Reuters that people are offering Gacek inappropriate food. And it shows, given that the cat seems on the chubby side, but that is probably also the key to his charm.

Gacek is not the first animal to draw tourists to a Polish city. In 2021, a golden retriever became Gdańsk’s most highly rated tourist attraction on Google.