$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI] contains strange data, how to fix it?

Question

PHP

Good afternoon.
Routing is carried out on the site, the data is taken from $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].
The controller is called on the first element, and the action must be called on the second.
Links like site.com/main or site.com/catalog are parsed normally, the appropriate controllers are called (main, catalog, etc.).
The problem arises with the second parameter. The idea is that a link like site.com/catalog/productsType1 should be parsed to catalog and productsType1.
For some reason, a link like /catalog/productsType1 comes to the router from the shared directory as
/catalog/application/css/mycss.css
Need help.
sources:
htaccess
--------------------
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
------------
directory links look like:

"<a href='catalog/" . $value['itemTranslit'] . "'>" . $value['itemTitle'] . "</a>"

It is not clear why they are transformed into /catalog/application/css/mycss.css
Which way to dig?

Answer 1

in templates, you need to specify absolute paths to css files. These are the ones that end up in index.php.