Ricardo Romero: The Cat Sculpture That Walks the Roofs of Leiria, Portugal
Perched on a flat rooftop in Praça Eça de Queiroz, in the Portuguese city of Leiria, a black cat walks the skyline. Created by artist Ricardo Romero for Arte Pública Leiria, the sculpture, titled Olhar e não Ver (To Look and Not See) is as much an encounter as it is an artwork.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
From the street below, passersby lift their gaze. They see the cat, poised mid-step, one paw raised, and beyond it, Leiria Castle, centuries old, resting on the horizon. The cat doesn’t look at the castle; instead, it becomes the bridge between the viewer and history. It transforms the act of looking into something layered and meditative.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
Romero’s feline is cast in deep matte black, absorbing light, refusing spectacle. It stands between presence and absence, an urban apparition that rewards attention but resists capture. Olhar e não Ver is about observation: how often we look, and how rarely we truly see.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
The sculpture’s tension lies in its gesture, not resting, not leaping, but walking. It’s the embodiment of quiet momentum, a metaphor for movement through thought. Against Leiria’s pale façades and terracotta roofs, it commands the skyline without dominance, embodying a kind of architectural humility.
Image copyright Ricardo Romero
In this first public appearance, Romero’s cat announced the arrival of a new and exciting voice in contemporary Portuguese sculpture, one attuned to silence, to poise, to the unseen poetry within urban space.
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