The little park by the Golden Gate monument, a wooden fortification symbolizing the ancient entrance to Kyiv, is a popular tourist hangout. Apart from the actual gate museum, it has a monument to Yaroslav the Wise, the prince of the medieval Kyivan Rus empire who built St. Sophia Cathedral. There is also a less noticeable monument to a cat, which cannot boast any ancient history but is no less magnetic than its mighty neighbors.
If the handsome bronze cat standing on a stone pedestal had to introduce himself, he would probably say that being a restaurateur was his favorite pastime. People who erected the monument to a furry Persian in the center of Kyiv would hardly disagree.
The grey curly cat lived in the popular Italian restaurant Pantagruel near the Golden Gate since its opening in 1995. His name was a diminutive of the name of the establishment – Pantyusha. The restaurant, in its turn, was named after the character in The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel by French writer Francois Rabelais. Two giants who liked to eat well and play hard were the protagonists of the novel.
Pantyusha led his life as if he was the lead character in the restaurant. “He was everyone’s favorite,” said Alla Oshkukova, Pantagruel’s marketing manager. “He was walking around guests’ tables making sure they were happy.”
Because of electricity failure one night in 1997, the restaurant suffered a fire, taking the cat away. Mourning the loss, friends of the eatery buried him in the park and decided to erect a monument in his memory right there. With the help of staff and guests’ donations, Pantyusha was cast in bronze, looking back at his tail.
“He was actually looking at a butterfly on his tail, but people pinched it [off],” said Oshkukova. “Later, people presented the restaurant with two other cats, but none of them treated it like home. One of Pantyusha’s successors was stolen, and another was adopted by a staff member.”
The bronze cat, however, is still overseeing the park and the restaurant. A good photo companion, he also became a symbol of good fortune. “There are a few rituals connected with him now. People rub his ears and pat him on the back for good luck,” said Oshkukova.
Kyiv tour guides tell their own stories about Pantyusha. In one of them, the monument takes after the giant black magic cat, Begemot, in the Master and Margarita novel by Mikhail Bulgakov.
In yet another legend, he may have been a favorite pet of Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Tour guides say that in ancient times they were honorable animals for catching mice and rats in barns and palaces alike. Apparently they cost even more than horses and oxen.
But whatever the story, the Persian cat, even in bronze, brings up a smile and makes people slow down on an otherwise hectic street.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliya Popova can be reached at [email protected]
