Gacek, an overweight black-and-white street cat, is the top-rated tourist attraction in the Polish city of Szczecin, with a nearly perfect 4.9/5.0 star rating from thousands of Google reviews.
Szczecin, a medieval city in northwestern Poland near the German border, has a lot to offer visitors. The Pomeranian Duke’s Castle and Kasprowicza Park are two of the city’s most popular tourist attractions, but they pale in comparison to the city’s top-rated attraction, a fat cat named Gacek. The tuxedo cat rose to fame in 2020 after local news site wSzczecinie featured the feline in a video that went viral on social media, and people have been lavishing Gacek with praise ever since.
According to a local woman, Gacek first appeared on Kaszubska Street in downtown Szczecin about 10 years ago. He stuck around and people started taking a liking to him. Many of them also started feeding him, so from a skinny feline, he soon turned into a chunky boy, which only made him more adorable.
According to Notes From Poland, Gacek has a few one-star reviews, mostly from people who criticize his caretaker or express concern about his weight, but the cat’s reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
Gacek, also known as the “King of Kaszubska Street,” lives in a roofed wooden box outside a shop on Kaszubska Street, and his caretakers are the people who run the shop. A sign outside his house instructs passers-by to place any treats they have for the cat in a sealed container and to avoid petting him while he is sleeping.
