Butare (), also known as Huye and formerly known as Astrida, is a city with a population of 62,823 (2022 census) in the Southern Province of

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

and the capital of

Huye district Huye is one of the eight districts (''Akarere'') that make up Rwanda's Southern Province. It has a total surface area of 581.6 square Kilometers. It has thirteen sectors and 77 cells with a total of 508 umudugudus (villages) in total. The district ...

. It is the seventh largest town in Rwanda by

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

History

The Belgian colonial rulers established it in the 1920s and named the city ''Astrida'', in honour of Queen Astrid of the Belgians. The government of Rwanda changed the name of the city when it gained independence in 1962.

Climate

Education

The

University of Rwanda University of Rwanda (, ) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate, multi campus university based in Kigali, Rwanda. Formed in 2013 through the merger of previously independent education institutions, the University of Rwanda is the largest ...

Butare campus was founded in 2013. Before that, the Butare campus went by the name of

National University of Rwanda The National University of Rwanda (NUR; , , UNR) was the largest university in Rwanda. It was located at in the city of Butare and was established in 1963 by the government in cooperation with the Congregation of the Dominicans from the Provin ...

subsequent its foundation in 1963. Due to the large number of university students and student-centered activities in the city, Butare is often regarded as a university city. It also held the

Nyakibanda Seminary The Saint Charles Borromeo Major Seminary of Nyakibanda is a Roman Catholic seminary near to Butare, in the Gishamvu sector of the Huye District in Southern Province of Rwanda, below the mountain chain called "Ibisi bya Nyakibanda". It is about ...

and the

Rwandan National Institute of Scientific Research Rwandan or Rwandese may refer to: * Related to, from, or connected to Rwanda, a country in Africa * Banyarwanda, inhabitants of the country Rwanda and those of Rwandan ethnicity. * Kinyarwanda, the language of the Banyarwanda, sometimes known as t ...

. The city of Butare has long been regarded as the intellectual capital of the country, while

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

holds most political power. The

Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare The Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare (GSOB) Indatwa n’inkesha, also known as the Indatwa n'Inkesha School, is a historic secondary school in Huye District in Butare (formerly Astrida), Rwanda. As well as being the oldest secondary school in t ...

is the largest secondary school in Rwanda.

Culture

The

Ethnographic Museum Ethnographic museums, also known as ethnological museums, conserve, display and contextualize items relevant to the field of ethnography, the systematic study of people and cultures. Such museums include: List by country or region Albania * Ethnog ...

was built in the early 1990s and is a source of information on the cultural history of the country and the region.

Sports

The city has one professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team competing in the top-flight of

football – Mukura Victory Sports, currently playing in the

Rwanda Premier League The Rwanda Premier League is the highest division of football in Rwanda. The league was formed in 1975. It was known as the Primus National Football League in 2004 and from 2009–10 to 2012–13, after which sponsorship was taken over by Turb ...

. It plays its home games at

Stade Huye The Huye Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Butare, Rwanda. It is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sp ...

Places of worship

Among the

places of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is so ...

, they are predominantly

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

churches and temples :

Roman Catholic Diocese of Butare The Roman Catholic Diocese of Butare is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda. It was erected on 11 September 1961 as the Diocese of Astrida by Pope John XXIII, and was later renamed as the Diocese of Buta ...

(

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

), (

Lutheran Church of Rwanda The Lutheran Church of Rwanda (Itorero Ry' Abalutheri Ry' Urwanda, Église luthérienne du Rwanda) is a Lutheran denomination in Rwanda. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, which it joined in 2002. It is also a member of thConseil pro ...

(

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; ) is a global Communion (religion), communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish city of L ...

the Anglican Church of Rwanda ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...

(

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

), Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda (

Baptist World Alliance The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international communion of Baptists, with an estimated 51 million people from 266 member bodies in 134 countries and territories as of 2024. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts f ...

Assemblies of God The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

of the Nazarene.J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann, ''Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices'', ABC-CLIO, USA, 2010, p. 2481 There are also

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

mosques.

Transportation

The city is served by

Butare Airport Butare Airport is an airport in Butare, Rwanda. Location Butare Airport , is located in the city of Butare, in Huye District, Southern Province, Rwanda, Southern Province. Its location lies approximately , by air, southwest of Kigali Internationa ...

, a small civilian airport, administered by the

Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority The Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA, , ) is the civil aviation authority of Rwanda. Its headquarters are at Kigali International Airport in Kigali. The authority was established as the Civil Aviation Authority by Law No. 21/2004 of 10/08/2004 ...

References

{{Authority control Southern Province, Rwanda Populated places in Rwanda