The Bahía Blanca Argentina Temple — the fifth temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South America country — has moved into its construction phase, following a Saturday, April 9, groundbreaking ceremony.
Elder Joaquín E. Costa, General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s South America South Area presidency, presided at the groundbreaking at the 8.14-acre site at Aldea Romana over Cabrera Avenue.
A number of community members — including local civic leaders — attended the invitation-only event.
“We thank the authorities of the different governments through the many years that the gospel has been shared here,” said Elder Costa, a native of Concordia, Argentina, in the dedicatory prayer over the property and construction process. “We are grateful for the tolerance and openness to receive missionaries, allow construction and provide a safe environment for the restored Church of Jesus Christ to grow in Bahía Blanca and southern Argentina.”
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Bahía Blanca as one of eight locations identified during the April 2020 general conference.
On Feb. 9, 2022, the Church released a site location and exterior rendering for the temple.
According to plans, the single-story temple will be 19,000 square feet. A 25,000-square-foot ancillary building also will be built on the site, providing patron housing and a distribution center.
The country’s first temple — the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple — was dedicated in 1986, with the second coming nearly three decades later with the 2015 dedication of the Córdoba Argentina Temple.
Two more are currently under construction — the Salta Argentina Temple and the Mendoza Argentina Temple, both with their groundbreakings held in late 2021.
More than 470,000 Latter-day Saints in some 735 congregations reside in the southern South American country.
Bahía Blanca is a port city in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, located about 400 miles south of the capital city of Buenos Aires.
A recording of the groundbreaking ceremony is available in Spanish.
