Rubaga Cathedral, properly Saint Mary’s Cathedral Lubaga, is the mother church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala, standing twin towered on Lubaga hill about three kilometres west of the city centre. It holds around five thousand people, it went up out of roughly two and a half million bricks, and it faces Namirembe across a valley in a way that is not accidental. You will see the name spelled both Rubaga and Lubaga, which is the same Luganda sound written two ways. The religious heritage guide covers Uganda’s faith sites as a whole; this page is the hill itself.
Things to Do on a Rubaga Cathedral Tour
The cathedral is open, free to walk into and very rarely busy on a weekday. Nobody hands you a leaflet, so the visit is worth a little structure.
Inside the Cathedral: What the Tour Shows You
The interior is long, high and stripped back, closer to a very large parish church than to a European cathedral full of side chapels. Published dimensions are given in feet on most Ugandan sources and work out at around seventy five metres from the doors to the altar, with a transept crossing it at roughly forty five. The roof sits about fifteen metres above the floor.
What carries the building is the brickwork, made and laid locally, and the twin towers on the front that you can pick out from anywhere on the western side of Kampala. It was under construction for years and consecrated in December, after a first phase of building, a war and a long wait for money.
Graves and Relics on the Tour: Who Is Buried Here, and Who Was Moved
This is the part of a Rubaga visit where the standard guiding is out of date, and it is worth getting right.
Archbishop Joseph Kiwanuka is interred in the cathedral. He was the first African raised to the Catholic episcopate in modern times and later the first African archbishop of Kampala, and his grave is the one visitors are most often brought to. The cemetery outside holds later archbishops and Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga.
What is no longer here is Mapeera. Father Simeon Lourdel, the first Catholic missionary into Buganda, known everywhere by that name, was buried at Rubaga for more than a century. His remains, together with those of Brother Amans and several other early missionaries, were moved to the church at Nabulagala near Kasubi, the ground given to the mission by Mutesa I. Plenty of tour pages still send visitors to Rubaga to see a tomb that is not there.
The Martyrs Window: the Part of the Tour People Photograph
The Catholic martyrs of Buganda, executed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II, are set into the glass of the transept, and the Catholic count of those canonised is twenty two. Anglicans were killed in the same persecution and are remembered separately, which is one of the reasons the two hills tell the story differently.
The killings and the missionary rivalry behind them are the hinge of Buganda’s late nineteenth century: a court split three ways between Catholic, Anglican and Muslim factions, a civil war, and a kingdom that ended up under British protection. Standing on Lubaga and looking at Namirembe, you are looking at the two sides of that split still occupying their hills. The Namirembe page is the other half.
Lubaga Hill Before the Cathedral, and Why It Matters on a Trip Here
Lubaga was a royal hill before it was a church hill. Mutesa I had his capital here, and the missionaries were settled beside the court because that was where a foreign party had to be to matter. His son Mwanga II later gave the hill to the White Fathers.
So the cathedral is not built on neutral ground. It is built on a kabaka’s capital, given away by a kabaka, and that is the same pattern you see at Namirembe and at Mengo: kingdom and mission wound around each other on adjoining hills. It is also why the royal heritage guide and the religious sites overlap so heavily in this city.
Getting There and Pairing Rubaga With Other Kampala Tours
Lubaga hill is about three kilometres west of the centre, ten to twenty minutes depending on the hour, and every driver knows the cathedral. The road up is a steep climb and the towers are visible from a long way off, so it is hard to miss.
Pair it with Namirembe first, since the two only make sense together, then the Lubiri at Mengo in the valley between them, then Kasubi. That is a full and coherent half day. The Kampala guide sets out the shape of it, and the city tours guide and historical tours guide carry the operators who run those mornings.
Frequently Asked Questions About Visiting Rubaga Cathedral
Is there an entrance fee?
No. The cathedral is open to anyone and there is no ticket. A donation in the box and a tip for whoever shows you round are both appropriate, and neither is demanded.
Can I go in during a Mass?
Yes, and you are welcome to stay. Masses run in English and Luganda through Sunday morning and daily during the week. Sit at the back, dress as the congregation does, and leave the camera in the bag until afterwards.
Where are the Uganda Martyrs actually commemorated?
The killing sites are at Namugongo, northeast of the city, where the Catholic basilica and the Anglican shrine stand, and at Munyonyo on the lake where the first killings happened. Rubaga holds a memorial and the window, not the sites themselves.
Is Mapeera’s grave at Rubaga?
Not now. Father Simeon Lourdel lay here for over a century and his remains were moved, with those of other early missionaries, to the church at Nabulagala near Kasubi. Guides and tour pages still say otherwise, so check before you make a special trip for it.
How long does a visit take?
Half an hour on your own, an hour with someone showing you the graves and the archive. It is a short stop that earns its place because of what it sits next to rather than because of how long it holds you.
Which should I visit if I can only do one, Rubaga or Namirembe?
Namirembe, for the graveyard, the drum and the better view. Rubaga, for the scale of the building and the martyrs window. Doing one and not the other leaves you with a lopsided account of how Christianity arrived in Buganda, and they are ten minutes apart.
Uganda Safaris lists safaris sold by independent Ugandan operators. We take no booking, handle no payment and charge you nothing. Nothing here is sold as a cathedral trip on its own, so contact an operator through the enquiry route and ask for a Kampala morning that works the western hills properly rather than driving past them on the way somewhere else.