The Cats' House

Crouch down a little. At ground level, in the wall of number 9 Calle del Museo, there is a miniature house: tiled roof, barred windows, a little door and even flowerpots. This is the Cats' House, one of the most endearing corners of the El Carmen district.

1A cat flap turned into a house

For a long time there was just a hole in the wall here, through which the neighbourhood cats came and went from an empty plot. At the beginning of this century, according to published accounts, the sculptor Alfonso Yuste Navarro turned that gap into a miniature façade, and he restored it himself in 2023 after several acts of vandalism. Local residents still leave water and food for the cats that use it.

2The legend of the four cats

A plaque dedicates the little house “to the memory of the four cats left in the El Carmen district” and dates it to the year 1094, in Roman numerals. That is the year El Cid conquered Valencia, and it gave rise to the legend that guides repeat today: El Cid supposedly ordered the city's cats to be wiped out, and only four managed to hide here. All Valencian cats would be descended from them.

No chronicle records any such order from El Cid: the legend plays on the expression “cuatro gatos”, “four cats”, which in Spanish and Valencian means “hardly anyone”.

The joke works because it fits the spirit of El Carmen, a district of narrow streets, street art and unexpected corners at every turn.

3What to look for

• The plaque, with the year written in Roman numerals.
• The details of the miniature: roof tiles, grilles, door and flowerpots.
• The Centre del Carme, the former Carmelite convent opposite.