Kampala City Tour
The mother cathedral of Uganda's oldest Roman Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of Kampala, is called Rubaga Cathedral.
The Lubaga Division’s Rubaga Hill, one of Kampala’s seven hills, is home to the Rubaga Cathedral. From the center of Kampala, the cathedral is located about 3 kilometers west on a road. The palace of the 30th Kabaka of Buganda Muteesa I originally stood atop Rubaga hill, which reaches to a height of 4,134 feet. After his palace was destroyed by fire, Kabaka Muteesa I, who ruled from 1856 to 1884, moved from this hill to one of the adjacent Kampala hills known as Mengo. Later, in 1889, his successor Mwanga II gave Namirembe hill to the Anglicans in order to build an Anglican church there as well as the hill to the first Catholic missionaries, also known as White Fathers and locally known as Wafaransa, meaning the French. To prevent disputes among the followers, the rulers of Buganda used to distribute these missionaries to various locations.
On this hill, the missionaries began building a contemporary cathedral in 1914, and it was finished in 1925. St. Mary’s Cathedral in Rubaga was dedicated on December 31st, 1925. The residence of the Archbishop of the Diocese of Kampala is located here. The church is near to Rubaga Hospital. The late Archbishop Joseph Kiwanuka, the first black Archbishop of the South Sahara, as well as the first cardinal of Uganda, Emmanuel Nsubuga, as well as some missionaries are all buried at the rubaga cathedral’s graves. This is one of Kampala’s most well-known places of worship, but it is not even located on one of the city’s illustrious or historic hills.
Rubaga hill was formerly known as Lubaga, a name given to the hill because it was where the Kabaka of Buganda and his generals met to plan military expeditions. Lubaga was derived from the Luganda word “Okubaga,” which means “to plan.” After the hill was given to French Catholic missionaries to do missionary work and establish a church on, pronouncing the name Lubaga became difficult, and they instead pronounced it Rubaga. Rubaga became a popular name for the hill, and it was also applied to the church and other facilities on the hill, such as Rubaga Hospital, which also houses a nursing school, Rubaga Girls’ Secondary School, and other smaller facilities.
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Rubaga Hill provides breathtaking panoramas of the surroundings. The area is calm and pleasant, and the architecture is stunning to look at. It demonstrates the beauty of classical Roman architecture. Although the Rubaga Cathedral church edifice has undergone numerous renovations, the majority of the materials and architectural design have been kept in place.
You will get the chance to see this gorgeous twin-towered church on your tour up Rubaga Hill. It has preserved the lovely old architecture inside and out, nice stained glass windows, and an incredibly stunning interior design. The Pope Paul Memorial Hotel and Conference Hall, which are both close to Kabaka’s lake, are only two of the many other attractions in Rubaga.
