TorontoOntario · 36 tours
Niagara FallsOntario · 25 tours
New York CityNew York · 30 tours
Las VegasNevada · 8 tours
San FranciscoCalifornia · 16 tours
VancouverBritish Columbia · 17 tours
DubaiUAE · 54 tours
Abu DhabiUAE · 5 tours
Buenos AiresArgentina · 23 tours
AthensGreece · 31 tours
AucklandNew Zealand · 38 tours
CancunMexico · 54 tours
No destinations match “”. Try searching all tours instead — that search understands full questions, not just place names.
A riverside park along the Cali River centered on a large bronze cat sculpture by Colombian artist Hernando Tejada, now one of the city's best-known public art pieces and gathering spots.
Visitor guide
Parque del Gato de Tejada, also called Cat Park, is a riverside park on the Cali River in Cali, Colombia. It is built around El Gato del Rio, a large bronze cat sculpture by the Colombian artist Hernando Tejada, and has become a landmark of the city.
El Gato del Rio, meaning The River Cat, was inaugurated on 3 July 1996, a date celebrated as the independence day of Cali. According to Wikipedia, the sculpture sits on the side of the Cali River and has become a well-known landmark, alongside the monument to Sebastian de Belalcazar and Cristo Rey.
In 1996 the city planned a beautification project for the banks of the Cali River on the north side of the city, and Tejada donated the sculpture to the municipality. It was cast in bronze in the studio of Rafael Franco in Bogota. Wikipedia notes that the roof of the studio had to be removed to get it out, which gives a sense of its size. A plaque is located below it.
Hernando Tejada was a Colombian painter and sculptor. One source says El Gato del Rio was his last bronze sculpture and that he died in 1998. It weighs roughly 3 tons according to the same report.
In 2006 a programme of companion cat sculptures by other artists was added to the area; local press attributes the programme to the Cali Chamber of Commerce. Fifteen new cats of the same size and shape were painted by different Colombian artists, including Maripaz Jaramillo, Roberto Molano, Diego Pombo, Cecilia Coronel, Pedro Alcantara and Omar Rayo. These became known as las novias del gato, the cat's girlfriends. A regional source says that the new cats were made of fibreglass and designed with Tejada's nephew. Today more than 15 cats are exhibited, and some are distributed around the city.
The area beside the sculpture has become a park known as Parque El Gato de Tejada, or the Cat Park, which is a public space along the river on the Avenida del Rio. It is on a route with high foot traffic, and people stop to take photographs with the cats and to stroll beside the river. The Cali River boulevard and the La Tertulia Museum are not far away.
The park is easy to include in a walk or drive through central Cali. It is an open outdoor space, so the weather is the main consideration: Cali is warm, and rain showers can arrive in the afternoon. A private guide can tell the stories behind each painted cat, and a driver can link the park with nearby sites such as the museum, San Antonio and Cristo Rey.
See every tour and attraction we cover in Cali.
