St Matthew's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, a buff-coloured neo-Romanesque church completed in 1908. Italian missionaries — Comboni Fathers, after the order founded by Daniele Comboni in the 19th century — designed and built it, and its bell tower and rose window are among the few landmarks of Sharia Al-Qasr in central Khartoum.
The interior is plain by European cathedral standards, with whitewashed walls and a wooden ceiling, but the cool, quiet space is a relief from the heat outside. Mass is held in Arabic and English, and the small adjoining grounds offer a moment of calm in the middle of the city.