With an architectural design and color scheme compatible with that found in government buildings and other prominent structures through Brazil’s Federal District, the new Brasília Brazil Temple has opened its doors to the public, with weeks of tours having already started.
On Tuesday, Aug. 1, the Brasília temple became the latest house of the Lord for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to start its open-house period, with Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve presiding at the media day. Local journalists and other invited guests came for a morning news briefing and subsequent tours hosted by Elder Soares and Church leaders.
In conjunction with the media day, the Church released interior and exterior images of the temple on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The temple is scheduled to be dedicated Sept. 17 by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve and will be the tenth operating temple in Brazil. It is one of three houses of the Lord in the Western Hemisphere that will be dedicated that day.
The Brasília Brazil Temple sits on a 6-acre site at SGAN 612, Lote “C”, Asa Norte, in the nation’s capital. Besides the single-story building of approximately 25,000 square feet, the site also includes patron housing and a new meetinghouse.
Tours began last weekend, as those involved in the architectural design and construction work of the temple joined engineering students and open-house volunteers to walk through the sacred edifice.
Special-guest tours will run for nearly two weeks, from after Tuesday’s media session through Friday, Aug. 11, excluding the Sunday in that 11-day stretch.
Public tours begin Saturday, Aug. 12, and run through Saturday, Sept. 2, excluding Sundays.
The reason behind the Brasília temple’s design
The Brasília temple was designed and built to fit the unique style of the mid-20th century Brazilian modernism that is prevalent in many buildings throughout the nation’s capital city, thanks to the leading work of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
The clean lines, expansive cantilevers and complex curves evoke the subtle arched lines seen on sailing ships, with the temple following similar design principles to match the city’s architectural landscape.
The urban plan for Brasília and the Federal District was created in the shape of an airplane around Lake Paranoá; the Brasília temple is in the area of what is known as the North Wing.
The Brasília temple’s features
The edifice is a symmetrical cement structure clad in gleaming white Brazilian marble and features a small tower slightly arising from the center.
The exterior art glass is hand-colored stained glass that goes from dark blue at the bottom to light blue at the top, with cream and white accents.
The reflection pools feature ceramic tiles in shades of blue and white that complement the colored art glass.
The landscaping of the temple site includes drought-tolerant native species that provide color and beauty to the property. Besides a myriad of shrubs and bushes, the more than 200 trees range from shade trees and evergreens to flowering trees and palms.
Inside the temple, the flooring includes Paraná white marble, native to Brazil, as well as porcelain tiles and Bahia blue stone accents and borders. Carpets feature a palette of colors matching the interior design.
Doors and millwork are made of light brown Jequitibá wood, also native to Brazil. And the works of art throughout include several original pieces, including works of two Brazilian artists.
Brasília and the Church’s history there
In 1960, Brazil’s national capital moved from Rio de Janeiro to the interior of the country — the new city of Brasília in the Central Plateau.
The first Latter-day Saints in the area lived in the camps of Cidade Livre (Free City), which housed workers building the new city.
Elder Ezra Taft Benson, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and who at the time was serving as secretary of agriculture in the United States government, was the first Church leader to visit Brazil’s new capital, during an official government trip in late October 1960.
In May 1961, the first convert baptism in the new Federal District took place, and in November of that year, the Church’s first congregation — the Brasília Branch — was organized. Four years later, the Church’s first meetinghouse was dedicated.
President Spencer W. Kimball visited Brasília in 1975 and met with Brazil’s President Ernesto Geisel. Their conversations included talk of the upcoming construction of the São Paulo Brazil , which had been announced just two days earlier. The São Paulo temple was not only the Church’s first house of the Lord in Brazil but throughout the South American continent.
Elder Benson returned in 1980 to create the first stake in central Brazil, the Brasília Brazil Stake. A second stake — the Brasília Brazil Alvorada Stake — followed three years later. Two years later, the Church created the Brazil Brasília Mission from several existing missions in the country; it immediately boasted the largest-size mission territory in the world.
Brasilia temple milestones
President Thomas S. Monson announced plans for a temple in Brasília during the April 2017 general conference.
Elder Adilson de Paula Parrella, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Brazil Area, presided over the Sept. 26, 2020, groundbreaking ceremony and offered a dedicatory prayer on the site and the construction processes.
In February of this year, the First Presidency announced the Sept. 17 dedication date for the Brasília temple. Elder Andersen will preside over the two dedications — at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time — and will offer the dedicatory prayer. Elder Andersen presided over the Brazil South Area for several years in the early 2000s.
The dedicatory sessions will be broadcast to all units in the Brasília Brazil Temple district.
Two other temples will be dedicated by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Sept. 17 as well — the Bentonville Arkansas Temple by Elder David A. Bednar and the Moses Lake Washington Temple by Elder Quentin L. Cook.
Temples and Brazil
Brazil is home to 36 missions and nearly 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in more than 2,100 congregations. Missionary work began in Brazil in 1928; 50 years later, the country’s first temple — the São Paulo Brazil Temple — was dedicated. As a country, Brazil has the third-most members of the Church in the world, after the United States and Mexico.
Once dedicated, the house of the Lord in Brasília will join Brazil’s nine dedicated and operating temples, in Belém, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Temples are under construction in Salvador and Belo Horizonte, while eight more temples have been announced and are in planning and development stages — in Londrina, Maceió, Natal, Ribeirão Preto, Santos, São Paulo East, Teresina and Vitória.
Even with the country’s nine current operating temples, many Latter-day Saints in Brazil must still travel long distances at great expense to enjoy the blessings of temple attendance. The Brasília temple — located at the heart of the sprawling South American nation — will be the first temple in the country’s geographic interior.
For example, the distance from Palmas to the Campinas Brazil Temple — which is from country’s interior to the southern side, close to São Paulo — is nearly 1,100 miles, requiring a nonstop drive by car of 20-plus hours. The temple in Brasília will halve the time and distance and reduce travel expenses, but it will still be more than a 10-hour drive.
