The Cat House (Kaķu nams), Riga

The Cat House from a few angles — click any image for the full-size view.

Short answer, what the Cat House is

The Cat House (in Latvian, Kaķu nams) is a yellow Art Nouveau apartment building at Meistaru iela 10/12, in the centre of Riga’s Old Town. It was built in 1909 by the Latvian architect Friedrich Scheffel for a wealthy Latvian merchant. On the roof are two black bronze cats, with arched backs and lifted tails, placed on different parts of the roofline. The house gets its nickname from these cats, and from the much-told story of why they’re there.

It is free to look at — you stand on the cobbles, you look up — and most Old Town walks pass it. Three minutes south of Riga Cathedral, two minutes north of the House of the Blackheads, and directly across the street from one of the buildings most central to the cats’ story.

The story Riga tells about the cats

Every Riga guide tells this one. The version I tell goes like this.

In the early 1900s, the merchant who built the Cat House applied to join the Great Guild of Riga (Lielā Ģilde), the powerful association of Riga’s German-Baltic merchants whose hall stood directly across the street. The Guild refused him — he was Latvian, not German, and the Guild had been a German institution for some six centuries. Insulted, the merchant commissioned the bronze cats, and had them placed on the roof of his new house with their tails turned pointedly toward the windows of the Guild building opposite. A cat’s raised tail, in the language Riga merchants would have understood, said exactly what it looks like it says.

The Guild took the merchant to court. The courts agreed the cats were a deliberate insult. The cats were ordered turned around. The Guild relented, the merchant was admitted, and the cats were quietly rotated to face the building ‘properly’.

That’s the story. Whether all of it is strictly true is another question, which I’ll come back to.

The building itself

The Cat House gets the headlines for the cats, which is fair. But the building under them is also worth a minute. Meistaru iela 10/12 is a strong example of National Romantic Art Nouveau — the Latvian variant of Jugendstil, the European style sweeping the city between roughly 1899 and 1914. It’s an early piece in that style: 1909 is solidly within the National Romantic phase, and the building shares a vocabulary with the better-known facades on Alberta iela in the Quiet Centre that everyone visits for the Art Nouveau walk.

From the cobbles, look up. The yellow stuccoed facade has rhythmic windows and small balconies, with three-storey-high stuccoed pilasters framing the bays. The conical green-roofed corner turret is the one carrying the more famous of the two cats. Decorative brickwork above the windows is picked out in a slightly darker tone, and the smaller balconies have wrought-iron details around the rails. None of it is shouting. It is the work of an architect with a small budget and a clear plan, and it stands up well against the better-known facades on Alberta iela that everyone visits for the Art Nouveau walk.

The building is also lived-in — some apartments are private homes, others have been converted into offices, and the ground floor houses a restaurant and a wine bar. The cobbles in front are part of the small open space that sits in front of the Great Guild building, which means there are always people stood here looking up.

The two cats, the Guild building, and what’s actually true

Worth being honest about a few things. The Cat House story is one of those Riga set-pieces that has been polished into something neater than the documentary record probably supports. The cats are real and on the building. The merchant’s frustration with the Great Guild was probably real. The court case is plausible, and the rotation of the cats is the kind of detail that has to come from somewhere. But the version told to tour groups assumes the merchant was Latvian; older historians have suggested he may have been German-Baltic but from the wrong family, or simply too newly rich for the Guild’s taste. The exact dates, the exact court ruling, and even the question of how many times the cats have been physically rotated — all of that is foggier than the polished version admits.

What is documented and certain: the building is from 1909, designed by Friedrich Scheffel; the Great Guild building (Lielā Ģilde) directly opposite was built between 1854 and 1860 in a romantic medieval-revival style and is itself a major Riga landmark, today the home of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The Small Guild (Mazā Ģilde) is around the corner. The Cat House sits squarely in the middle of the historical heart of Riga’s German merchant class, which is why the story works at all: a sculpture of a cat with a raised tail on a brand-new National Romantic building, looking down on the windows of an institution six centuries old, would have been read in 1909 exactly the way the story says.

So: the cats are doing what the story says they’re doing, even if the precise legal proceedings are blurrier. That’s usually the way with Riga stories.

Practical answers

Where it is

Meistaru iela 10/12, in the centre of Riga’s Old Town. Three minutes south of Riga Cathedral, two minutes north of Town Hall Square and the House of the Blackheads, directly opposite the Great Guild building. There’s a small open square in front of the Cat House where you can stand with a clear line of sight to the cats.

Hours, costs, getting in

The exterior is on a public street, free, 24/7. The building is not open to the public — the apartments are private and the offices aren’t for visitors. The ground-floor restaurant and wine bar are open to anyone; opening hours and menus change, walk past and check. There is no ‘Cat House Museum’. You stand on the cobbles, you look up, you take the photograph, you walk on. Five minutes is plenty.

Best time to photograph the cats

Late morning to early afternoon, when the sun is high enough to clear the surrounding rooflines and put light on the yellow facade. The corner turret faces roughly south-east, so morning gives you the best three-quarter side light on the famous cat. Step back to the centre of the small square in front of the Great Guild for a clear angle that catches both cats in the same frame. Avoid mid-summer noon — the cats are silhouetted against bright sky and lose detail.

Combining with the rest of the Old Town

The Cat House is a one-stop, five-minute detail, not a destination. The neighbours that pair with it: the cathedral three minutes north, the Three Brothers seven minutes north-west, the House of the Blackheads two minutes south. The full route through the Old Town is in the Old Town pillar guide.

My honest take

The Cat House is one of the small set-pieces that gives the Old Town its character. It’s not a destination, but it’s the kind of detail that turns a city walk into something better than a checklist of cathedrals. A small, slightly petty story about a merchant’s pride. Two cats in bronze. A building that is itself a piece of the larger Riga Art Nouveau story. Five minutes of looking up.

The story behind it is half-true and half-polished, the way most good city stories are. I think it’s worth telling either way.

Frequently asked questions about the Cat House

Where exactly is the Cat House in Riga?

Meistaru iela 10/12, in the centre of Riga’s Old Town (Vecrīga). Three minutes’ walk south of Riga Cathedral, two minutes north of Town Hall Square. Directly across the street from the Great Guild building (Lielā Ģilde).

How many cats are on the Cat House?

Two. One sits on the conical corner turret — this is the famous one and the one most photographs catch. The second is on a smaller pavilion further along the gable. They are both bronze, both with arched backs and lifted tails, both visible from the small open square in front of the building if you step back far enough.

Why are the cats on the roof?

The story Riga tells: the merchant who built the house in 1909 was refused membership of the Great Guild across the street, and placed the cats with their tails pointedly turned toward the Guild’s windows in protest. The Guild took him to court; the cats were ordered turned around; the merchant was admitted to the Guild; the cats now face the building ‘properly’. How much of it is documented and how much polished is unclear — the building, the Guild building opposite, and the cats themselves are all real and on site.

When was the Cat House built?

1909, designed by the architect Friedrich Scheffel, in the National Romantic phase of Latvian Art Nouveau. It is contemporary with the better-known Art Nouveau apartment blocks on Alberta iela in Riga’s Quiet Centre, and represents the same architectural movement applied at smaller scale inside the Old Town walls.

Can you go inside the Cat House?

Not really — the upper floors are private apartments and offices and aren’t open to visitors. The ground floor houses a restaurant and a wine bar that anyone can walk into; their hours and menus change. The Cat House isn’t a museum and there’s no entry fee for the building.

How long should I spend at the Cat House?

Five minutes. You stand on the cobbles, look up at the cats, walk around to see both, and move on. It pairs with the Great Guild building opposite (also worth a look from outside) and slots into a longer Old Town walk taking in the cathedral, the House of the Blackheads, and St Peter’s tower.

What’s the Great Guild building across the street?

The Great Guild (Lielā Ģilde) was the powerful association of Riga’s German-Baltic merchants from the medieval period until the early 20th century. The current building was constructed between 1854 and 1860 in a romantic medieval-revival style, on the foundations of the older guild hall. Today it’s the home of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra; you can attend concerts inside but it’s otherwise not a regular visitor stop.

Is the Cat House story true?

Mostly. The cats are real, the building is real, the Great Guild building opposite is real, and the social tension between the new Latvian commercial class and the German-Baltic guild establishment in early-20th-century Riga is well documented. The exact court case, the precise dates, and the question of how many times the cats have actually been physically rotated have been polished by retelling. The basic situation — a merchant placing rude bronze cats on a roof aimed at a guild that had refused him — fits the period and the architecture, even if the courtroom drama owes some of its detail to oral tradition more than to archives.

Is there a fee or guided tour for the Cat House?

No fee. The Cat House is on a public street; the cats are visible to anyone walking past. Most Old Town walking tours stop here for two or three minutes to tell the story; if you’d like a half-day Old Town with a licensed Latvian guide that includes the Cat House, the Cathedral, the Three Brothers, and Town Hall Square in one route, we can do that — get in touch.

What architectural style is the Cat House?

Latvian National Romantic Art Nouveau (a regional variant of European Jugendstil), early phase. Yellow stuccoed facade, three-storey pilasters, a conical green-roofed corner turret, decorative brick detail, wrought-iron balconies. Riga has the densest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings of any European city — mostly in the Quiet Centre district just north of the Old Town walls — and the Cat House is one of the early Old Town examples.

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Daiga Taurīte is a licensed Latvian tour guide and co-founder of Barefoot Baltic, which runs small-group day excursions from Riga. She grew up in Riga, spent two decades working in London, and came home in 2024. Barefoot Baltic is licensed by Latvia’s Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC), holds ATD passenger transport licence PS-01995, and is insured by BTA Baltic for civil liability.

The Cat House is one of the stops on every Old Town walk we run. If you’d like the half-day Old Town with a licensed Latvian guide, including the cats, the cathedral, the Three Brothers, and the House of the Blackheads in one route, get in touch.