Burundi · Gitega Province
Where to Stay in Gitega, Gitega Province
Gitega is the political capital of Burundi, a plateau city east of Bujumbura that held the royal court of the Kingdom of Burundi until 1966.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Gitega
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
One museum anchors the choice. The National Museum of Gitega holds what remains of the royal court of the Kingdom of Burundi, and a room within reach of it also puts the offices that arrived with the 2019 capital vote inside walking distance. Few beds serve the new capital.
Gitega is not Bujumbura, and the accommodation that exists clusters in the built-up core rather than spreading across the 22 square kilometres the city covers. Gitega Province surrounds it. The province carries the city's own name and spreads across the Burundian central plateau, so the road out of town turns to farmland within a few minutes of leaving the built-up edge. Distance is modest.
Gitega stands roughly 62 kilometres east of Bujumbura, close enough that visitors whose work follows the branches of government can sleep here and still reach the commercial capital, and far enough that few of them try the trip twice in one day. The museum is the fixed point. Anyone choosing between a room in the core and one further out in Gitega Province should weigh the National Museum of Gitega, since the collection that records the Kingdom of Burundi is the reason a good share of visitors come at all.
Pierre Nkurunziza set the change in motion. His announcement, and the parliamentary vote that followed on 16 January 2019, moved the seat of government to a city that had held the royal court until 1966.
About Gitega
The capital moved inland.
What is Gitega known for?
A vote in the Parliament of Burundi on 16 January 2019 made Gitega the political capital, following an announcement by Pierre Nkurunziza that revived a promise from 2007, while Bujumbura keeps commerce. Kings ruled here first. The National Museum of Gitega stands in a city that served the Kingdom of Burundi as its royal capital until the monarchy was abolished in 1966.
What are the main landmarks in Gitega?
Gitega's roster of sights is brief. The National Museum of Gitega is the city's one museum of standing, holding material from the royal capital of the Kingdom of Burundi, whose court sat here until the monarchy was abolished in 1966. Past that, offices account for the rest.
Gitega serves as the seat of Gitega Province and, since the vote of the Parliament of Burundi, as the political capital, so the buildings that draw attention are the ones government moved into rather than anything raised for visitors.
What is the history of Gitega?
Kitega came first. The name was written Kitega before the present spelling took hold, and the founding year recorded for the city is 1912, well before either of the two turns that would decide what the place is for. Kings held court here.
Gitega was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Burundi, and it kept that standing until the monarchy was abolished in 1966, after which the country's political weight sat with Bujumbura. The plateau shaped the choice. A city on the Burundian central plateau, roughly 62 kilometres east of Bujumbura, stands at the middle of the country rather than at its edge, which is part of why the seat of government could be argued back to it.
The monarchy ended in 1966. The Kingdom of Burundi was abolished that year, and Gitega lost the role that had defined it, while Bujumbura carried both government and trade in the decades that followed. Then it came back.
Pierre Nkurunziza announced in December 2018 that he would honour a promise made in 2007 to restore the city's former status, and the Parliament of Burundi voted the change through on 16 January 2019. The move was staged. All branches of government were expected to relocate over three years, with Bujumbura keeping the commercial side while the offices of state came up onto the Burundian central plateau.
Where is Gitega?
The plateau sets the scene. Gitega occupies the Burundian central plateau at the middle of the country, roughly 62 kilometres east of Bujumbura, and it holds the surrounding province of the same name together from there. Little of it sprawls.
Its 22 square kilometres put the built-up ground well inside the bounds of Gitega Province, which spreads far beyond it across the same high country.
What is the climate of Gitega?
The plateau does the tempering. Gitega lies in the tropical band south of the equator, where the raised ground of the Burundian central plateau matters more to the feel of a day than the calendar month does. Rain sets the year.
Wet and dry spells govern it more than temperature does, and that pattern holds across Gitega Province as surely as it does over the city itself.
How do you get to Gitega?
Most arrivals come from Bujumbura. The road inland from the commercial capital covers roughly 62 kilometres to reach Gitega, which makes the trip a short one by the standards of the Burundian central plateau. Gitega Province surrounds the city on every side.
Traffic that is not headed for the offices of state is generally passing through, since the city sits at the middle of the country rather than on any border.
Updated August 2026