Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple interior, exterior photos

Publish date: 2024-07-31

The first public views — both in-person and digital — inside the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple were made available Monday, Nov. 6, coinciding with the start of the new temple’s open-house phase.

Once dedicated early next year, the house of the Lord will be the 187th dedicated temple worldwide of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the fourth in the South American nation and the second in Peru’s capital city.

Interior and exterior photos of the Los Olivos temple — as well as a Spanish-captioned video — were published Monday on ChurchofJesusChrist.org in conjunction with a media briefing with Church leaders and local media representatives, followed by a media tour of the temple.

Elder Jorge F. Zeballos, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s South America Northwest Area, welcomed the participating media representatives.

“We are honored to present a work with these characteristics and purpose,” said Elder Zeballos of the new house of the Lord, referring to the eternal objective for which the Church of Jesus Christ builds temples in the world.

Following Monday’s media day and tours for invited guests through Thursday, Nov. 9, the temple’s public open house will run from Friday, Nov. 10, through Saturday, Dec. 9, excluding Sundays.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, in two sessions at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. PET. The date is 38 years and four days after the dedication of the country’s first temple — the Lima Peru Temple, on Jan. 10, 1986.

Lima becomes the third city to have more than one house of the Lord, joining South Jordan, Utah (Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain temples), and Provo, Utah (Provo and Provo City Center temples). And the the Los Olivos temple is the Church’s first built outside of the United States in the same metropolitan area as another operating temple.

Additional temples in Peru were dedicated in Trujillo in 2014 and Arequipa in 2019. Five more are in planning and design — for Cusco, Chiclayo, Huancayo, Iquitos and Piura.

Exterior features of the Los Olivos temple

The Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple is a symmetrical precast concrete structure of more than 47,000 square feet in a simple art deco architectural style and white granite exterior. The flat-roofed, windowed tower rises above the celestial room from the center of the building and is easily visible to passersby, but the temple was designed without a central spire to better fit the neighborhood’s semiurban feel.

Built with an underground parking, the ground level provides grass areas and plants, allowing the 2.46-acre property to be seen as a haven of peace and beauty from the bustling Lima metro area.

The exterior stained-glass art windows feature creams, blues and greens, with some panels highlighted by pale scarlet flowers. The windows’ color scheme matches the interior paint and fabric, with the floral design based on the bud and bloom of the cantuta flower, Peru’s national flower. Also, an abstract tendril with leaves is part of the border design.

The gardens have four mature olive trees, reflecting the temple’s “Los Olivos” name. Planted along the corner paths that surround the building, the trees underscore Lima’s historic olive groves — among the first planted on the continent — as well as scriptural references to olive trees.

The grounds feature other trees — including evergreens, palms and shade and flowering trees — and hundreds of shrubs, as well as succulents, perennials and cantutas.

Interior features of the Los Olivos temple

Through the wooden entrance doors that feature carvings of olive branches, the art deco style continues inside — but with the addition of the scroll, a baroque motif commonly found in the city’s civic and religious architecture.

The interior stone floors are made of solid travertine quarried in Peru, with the main color of lilac complemented with a pinto brown. The interior stone used with the altars, walls and window sills is rumi, which comes from the same quarries but is cut perpendicular to the natural grain.

Rugs in the shades of beige and white throughout the temple; in the ordinance rooms, the hand-sculpted carpets feature patterns that mimic the decorative motifs of the cantuta, olive leaves and fruit-bearing tendrils.

Interior decorative paintings include scrolls with olive branches or tendrils with olives.

Scrolls and tendril patterns can be found on the stained cherry wood doors and millwork, with the same patterns repeated on the stones of the baptismal fonts and altars in the instruction rooms.

The interior art windows match the exterior window designs, with the cantuta — or climbing trumpet flower — and its scarlet buds and blossoms.

History of the Los Olivos Temple

The Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple was announced April 3, 2016, by President Thomas S. Monson.

The Lima North Institute of Religion building and a meetinghouse — two buildings originally on the temple site — were permanently closed on Jan. 27, 2019, to be demolished to make way for the new house of the Lord.

The temple’s June 8, 2019, groundbreaking was presided over by Elder Enrique R. Falabella, a General Authority Seventy and president of the South America Northwest Area, on June 8, 2019.

Elder Falabella told attendees that the groundbreaking would be unforgettable. “There is something special in the temples,” he said. “As we spend more time in the Lord’s house, our life will have greater meaning.”

The Church in Peru

The first Latter-day Saint congregation in Peru was organized in July 1956 by Elder Henry B. Moyle of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with the first missionaries arriving to preach the gospel there the following month.

And Lima was the city where the first stake was organized in Feb. 22, 1970, what is now Church’s South America Northwest Area — including Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. One of the country’s first converts, Roberto Vidal, was called as stake president.

Today, Peru — the nation that rises from its Pacific Ocean beaches to its towering Andes peaks — is home to more than 630,000 Latter-day Saints comprising nearly 780 congregations and 112 stakes, which include 48 in Lima alone.

Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple

Location: Avenida Eloy Espinoza 680, San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru 15102

Announced: April 3, 2016, by President Thomas S. Monson

Groundbreaking: June 8, 2019, presided by Elder Enrique R. Falabella, a General Authority Seventy and president of the South America Northwest Area

Open house: Nov. 10 through Dec. 9, 2023 (excluding Sundays)

Scheduled for dedication: Jan. 14, 2024, by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Property area: 2.46 acres (1 hectare)

Building area: 47,413 square feet (4,404 square meters)

Building height: 81 feet (24.68 meters)