One hundred forty years after the first Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Hungary, members in the country witnessed a historic milestone.
Ground was broken for the Budapest Hungary Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, June 21. Elder Rubén V. Alliaud — a General Authority Seventy and the Europe Central Area president — presided over the ceremony and dedicated the site and construction process.
Information about the groundbreaking, which was livestreamed, was first published Saturday, June 21, on the Church’s Europe Newsroom.
In his remarks to those in attendance, Elder Alliaud emphasized the importance of temples as places of faith, revelation and sacred covenants.
“Temples stand as a testimony of our belief in the Resurrection of Christ, who overcame death and enables eternal family bonds,” he said. “Each temple is truly the house of the Lord and symbolizes God’s profound love for humanity.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site, Elder Alliaud thanked Heavenly Father for His great plan of happiness and acknowledged families can be eternal through the temple.
“Heavenly Father, we pray today that as we turn this soil for the construction of Thy holy temple, Thou wilt also help us turn away from the obstacles in our lives that prevent or hinder us from progressing and drawing closer to Thee,” prayed Elder Alliaud.
Budapest Hungary Stake President Péter Borsos expressed his gratitude for the community’s support of the temple and noted what the edifice will offer the community.
“We are grateful for the warm welcome, especially from the Óbuda municipality, which has supported our project from the very beginning,” said President Borsos. “We hope the temple will not only be a spiritual home for our community but also one of Budapest’s treasures, contributing to the cultural and spiritual enrichment of the local community.”
Gábor Klinger, a communication director for the Church in Hungary, said, “We communicate openly and transparently about our Church, our faith and the construction of our temple.”
Klinger said that to teach more people about the Church of Jesus Christ and its upcoming house of the Lord in Budapest, “we have created a dedicated and continuously updated website in Hungarian where important information is published for readers,” https://www.jezuskrisztusegyhaza.org/templom, which also answers frequently asked questions.
About the Church in Europe and Budapest
The single-story Budapest temple, of approximately 18,000 square feet, is being built on a 5.92-acre site at the northwest intersection of Kocsis Sandor ut and Borsikafu utca, Harsánylejtő, Óbuda, Budapest, Hungary.
The closest temple to Budapest is currently the Freiberg Germany Temple, a distance of approximately 350 miles away that crosses Slovakia and Czechia.
Europe is home to 14 dedicated temples, including the under-renovation Stockholm Sweden Temple. Another 10 houses of the Lord are in planning and design stages.
In addition to the Budapest temple, a temple in Birmingham, England, has been under construction since March 2025. Prior to these same-year groundbreakings, European Saints hadn’t seen a temple groundbreaking since that of the Lisbon Portugal Temple a decade earlier, in 2015.
The first two Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Hungary in 1885, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints didn’t receive legal recognition in the country until 1988.
President Thomas S. Monson, then second counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated Hungary’s first meetinghouse in October 1989. The Book of Mormon in Hungarian was published in 1991.
The Hungary Budapest Mission was created June 1, 1990, and the Budapest Hungary Stake was organized on June 4, 2006.
A former Eastern Bloc country, Hungary now has more than 5,200 Latter-day Saints across 21 congregations.
