At the end of May last year, national and global media circulated information about the faithful cat Rysiek, who escorts his owner to the PKM Gdańsk Firoga stop. A year after these events, a monument to the most faithful cat in the Tricity was unveiled in the same place.
Rysiek the cat won fans not only because of his red fur and gentle disposition. Every day, at a fixed time, he would walk his owner to the platform of the PKM Gdańsk Firoga train stop, take a seat next to the bench and watch her leave the train. After a long while, he would calmly walk back to his home. The Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway on 29 May 2023 published a recording of the faithful and devoted cat to its owner on its Facebook profile. With lightning speed, the video went viral in Pomerania, Poland and the world. Rysiek the cat became a favourite mainly of the Italian media. Among others, the prestigious dailies “La Repubblica” and “La Stampa” wrote about his story.
The cat became a showcase not only for its owner, Patrycja Makowska, but also for the PKM Firoga stop and the entire Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway line. After a year, a statue of the cat sitting at a bench on platform 1 and watching the departing train was unveiled. Rysiek now lives in a neighbouring district and no longer escorts his owner to the stop for safety reasons, but from 1 June, every passenger can meet him at the stop at any time. During a special event at the PKM Firoga bus stop, it was possible to meet Rysiek the cat, its owner and the sculpture’s author in person, and to take a photo with a bronze copy of the animal. The preparation of the statue is another opportunity to cooperate with the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, whose students have been beautifying the railway infrastructure with their works for many years. Less than a month ago, two new murals were unveiled near the PKM Niedźwiednik stop.
Blanka Kamińska, born 26 June 1999, a graduate of the Władysław Hasior State Secondary Art School in Koszalin, is responsible for the sculpture. She is currently completing her studies in sculpture at the Faculty of Sculpture and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. She has participated in many group exhibitions and the international plein-air event “Ceramics Alternatively”. Since the beginning of her studies, she has regularly performed commissions, mainly in the field of portrait sculpture, copies of classical sculptures and conservation of monuments. For her, creativity is a way of expressing her admiration for particular fragments of reality, as well as a source of happiness, a form of contemplation and work on herself.
The statue of Lynx the cat was officially unveiled with the participation of more than 100 people, including the President of PKM Grzegorz Mocarski, Senator Ryszard Świlski of the Republic of Poland and Professor Katarzyna Jóźwiak-Moskal from the sculpture department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk.
Source: pkm-sa.pl
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