Open House Begins for Brazil’s Seventh Temple

The public is invited to visit the newly completed Fortaleza Brazil Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The free tours begin April 27 and go through May 18, 2019, except for Sundays, April 28, May 5 and 12.

After the open house is concluded, the temple will be dedicated Sunday, June 2, and a devotional for the youth will be held the day before on June 1, 2019.

The temple was first announced by then President Thomas S. Monson in October 2009. The groundbreaking was held November 11, 2011, at the temple site located at Avenida Santos Dumont in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.

With Fortaleza as the capital of the state of Ceará, it is fitting that the temple’s exterior is covered with Branco Ceará granite quarried near the temple.

The domed single spire rises over 100 feet high and is topped with the gilded statue of the ancient prophet Moroni.

Native Brazilian orchid and trailing vines are the motif throughout the temple, including the art glass, carpets and flooring, decorative painting and carved woodwork.

Walls and corridors of the temple are adorned with familiar pieces of Latter-day Saint artwork along with original native landscape scenes from northern Brazil.

The temple is part of a larger Church facility that includes a meetinghouse, an arrival center and apartments for those serving in the temple.

The Church has been in Brazil since 1929 and has more than 1.3 million members spread throughout more than 2,000 congregations in the country.

Other temples in Brazil are located in Campinas, Curitiba, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife and São Paulo. Additional temples have been announced or are under construction in Belém, Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.