Doors have opened for public tours through the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This will be the first house of the Lord in the state of Minas Gerais.
The open house will run from June 13 to June 27, excluding Sundays. It will follow the June 10 media day and June 11-12 tours for invited guests.
Guiding news representatives on today’s media-day tour are Elder Ulisses Soares, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a native of Brazil; and Elder Mathias Held, a General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director in the Temple Department.
As the open-house phase began, interior and exterior photographs of the Belo Horizonte temple were published June 10 on the Church’s Brazil Newsroom.
Belo Horizonte’s house of the Lord will be dedicated Aug. 16, with a presiding authority not yet announced.
The 10 a.m. dedicatory session will be broadcast to all units in the temple district and rebroadcast at 2 p.m. That same day, Aug. 16, the Cleveland Ohio Temple will also be dedicated.
Design and features
A single-story structure of 2,665 square meters (28,685 square feet), the Belo Horizonte temple is made of precast concrete, with structural steel in a spire positioned over the celestial room. The exterior is clad in Branco Ceará, a Brazilian granite. Across the 6-acre grounds, plaza areas feature traditional black-and-white Portuguese-style stone paving.
Inside the edifice, designs draw inspiration from local Portuguese tile patterns, with geometric and floral motifs reflecting regional cultural influences. On the ceiling and friezes, decorative painting features circular mandala patterns. Art-glass windows, inspired by traditional Portuguese tile patterns common in Minas Gerais, display white, yellow and various shades of blue.
Crystal chandeliers can be found in the celestial room, sealing rooms and bride’s room, and decorative fixtures are in other areas of this house of the Lord. Native Brazilian tauari wood makes up millwork, cabinets, benches and other architectural details. Marble flooring is composed of locally manufactured Portinari Calacata Real porcelain tile and Calacatta Michelangelo Supreme marble.
About the Belo Horizonte temple
The Belo Horizonte temple is currently planned to be the Church’s 220th operating house of the Lord, the 12th in Brazil.
On April 4, 2021, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple for Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
On June 17, 2023, Elder Juan A. Uceda — then a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s Brazil Area presidency — presided over the temple’s groundbreaking. He later received emeritus status Aug. 1, 2023.
“May the light of the gospel shine throughout this region,” prayed Elder Uceda when dedicating the site for temple construction.
The Church in Brazil
Brazil has 24 temples in various stages. Eleven have been dedicated: the Belém, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo temples.
With the Belo Horizonte temple now open for tours, five Brazil temples are currently under construction: the João Pessoa, Londrina, Natal, Ribeirão Preto and Teresina temples.
That leaves seven in planning stages, for Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Goiânia, Maceió, Santos, São Paulo East and Vitória.
Latter-day Saint missionaries began preaching in southern Brazil in 1928. By the time the São Paulo Brazil Temple — the first in South America — was dedicated in 1978, membership in the country had reached 54,000.
Today, Brazil is home to more than 1.57 million Latter-day Saints, meeting in over 2,000 wards and branches.
Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple
Address: Rua Professor José Vieira de Mendonça, 1485 — Engenho Nogueira, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31310-260
Announced: April 4, 2021, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: June 17, 2023, presided over by Elder Juan A. Uceda, a General Authority Seventy
Public open house: June 13-27, 2026, excluding Sundays
To be dedicated: Aug. 16, 2026
Property size: 2.44 hectares (6.03 acres)
Building size: 2,665 square meters (28,685 square feet)
Building height: 19 meters (62 feet) to the top of the tower
