The Sacred Heart Cathedral sits at the base of Kita-Kourou and is the seat of the Diocese of Kita. The building itself is a modest brick church with twin towers, more striking for its setting than its architecture: framed by the bare rock of the inselberg behind it, it looks like a small chapel pressed against a mountain.
The pilgrimage each November transforms the town. Buses and bush taxis disgorge thousands of pilgrims, who camp in the surrounding fields and process up Kita-Kourou with candles by night. Outside pilgrimage season the cathedral is usually quiet — visit, sit in the cool of the nave, and walk up the path toward the rock.