site.btaRomanian Visual Artist Reimagines Every Bucharest Metro Station as Cat

Romanian artist Delia Topala has created a map of the Bucharest metro in which each of the system's 58 stations is reimagined as a cat. The breed, clothing, and pose of each feline reflect the name, history, or atmosphere of the area each station serves.

Creating the map took several months. The project has been gaining increasing popularity on social media in Romania.

Speaking to the Bulgarian News Agency, Topala said: "Bazilescu Park is named after Nicolae Bazilescu, a university professor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He donated the land on which the park was built to the State. Bazilescu also owned a champagne factory, which is why the cat for this station is hugging a bottle of champagne. Costin Georgian was the first director of the metro after the Revolution, so the cat I drew for that station is standing among toy train tracks. They vaguely resemble the shape of the metro trains from that period."

"I was inspired by the work of Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi and his print Cats Suggested as the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido,” she added.

Topala is a visual artist, who graduated from the Bucharest National University of Arts and has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer.

Construction of the Bucharest metro began on September 20, 1975. The system's first train entered service in 1979. Today, the Bucharest metro carries more than half a million passengers every day.