Salt Lake City’s signature LDS temple is undergoing a historic transformation. Here’s a peek inside

For more than a century, a six-spired, Gothic Revival temple in downtown Salt Lake City has been the spiritual epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and a mysterious sanctum that’s closed to outsiders.

For most people, the inside of the Salt Lake Temple has long been shrouded in secrecy, fueling both curiosity and criticism.

That is about to change. After years of extensive renovation and structural upgrades, the LDS Church will open its signature temple April 5 to the public — Mormons and non-Mormons alike – for six months of unprecedented tours. The church recently gave CNN a preview — and a rare peek behind the curtain of a religion many view as cloistered.

“This is such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for … the rest of the world to come and see what for more than a century was for (church) members only,” said Elder Matthew S. Holland, a senior official with the LDS Church. “For this brief period of time, it will be open to the world.”

Millions of visitors are expected, drawn by the allure of touring an iconic religious landmark that has been closed to everyone but Mormons in good standing since it was dedicated 133 years ago. The public tours will end October 1, 2027, when the temple will again be shuttered to all but faithful members of the church.

The temple — one of more than 200 LDS temples operating globally — has been closed since late 2019 for renovations to expand its interior, shore up its foundation and make seismic upgrades. To handle the expected crush of visitors, the church will make timed tickets available online beginning September 1.

A Christian denomination with nearly 18 million members worldwide, the LDS Church has grown steadily since its humble beginnings almost two centuries ago in upstate New York. Mormons have long faced persecution over their beliefs and practices, and pop culture has often treated them as subjects of sensationalism (“ Big Love ”) or satire (“ The Book of Mormon ”).

The halls of the flagship Salt Lake Temple have also been the subject of speculation. Early church members withstood false rumors about bloody temple rituals. And in 1911 a disgruntled ex-Mormon hid a camera under his coat and snapped surreptitious photos of the temple’s interior in an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail the church.

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But the LDS Church has taken steps in recent decades to broaden its message, and some observers believe that opening the iconic temple’s doors for six months is part of that effort.

“For nearly 30 years now, (there’s been) a real public relations push by the church to appear more open, more accessible, more friendly to the outside world,” said Matthew Bowman, a professor at Claremont Graduate University who specializes in Mormon studies.

“This temple open house is going to be devoted to that — to trying to bring in as many media people as possible, as many outsiders as possible,” he added. “It’s going to be a really hot ticket.”

The temple is the centerpiece of Temple Square , the church’s central complex that also houses a Victorian-era assembly hall, a visitor center, a reflecting pool and the domed Salt Lake Tabernacle, home to its famed choir. Utah has five national parks, but Temple Square is the state’s most-visited site.

Its location was chosen in 1847 by then-church president Brigham Young just days after Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Young presided over the temple’s groundbreaking but did not live to see it completed. The building was dedicated in 1893 after 40 years of construction.

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“It was done without modern tools or equipment, carving out granite stone from a little canyon about 20 miles from the heart of Salt Lake,” said the church’s Elder Holland. “And it was a remarkable engineering feat in its day.”

From the outside, the temple’s white stonework and dramatic spires make it look a little like a fairy-tale castle. Its exterior is rich with symbolism, from stone carvings representing the all-seeing eye of God to a golden statue, atop the highest spire, of an angel blowing a trumpet to herald the Second Coming. (Latter-day Saints believe the angel, called Moroni, guided church founder Joseph Smith to buried golden plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon.)

“It’s this kind of extraordinary piece of neo-Gothic architecture,” Bowman said. “Temples are a space where heaven touches earth, and just like cathedrals in the Roman Catholic tradition … they are built very tall and high and narrow to make you feel as though you’re being pulled upward, right toward heaven. And the Salt Lake Temple, of all the LDS temples, I think, is the most successful at accomplishing that.”

The temple’s interior, however, is grounded in practicality. Instead of a large communal worship space, it’s mostly a warren of smaller rooms where sacred rituals are held.

Among these are baptisms, including ceremonies in which current members are baptized on behalf of their deceased, non-Mormon ancestors. The practice has long been controversial, although the church says that ancestors’ names are not added to its membership records.

The temple is a coveted site for wedding ceremonies, known as celestial marriages, or sealings , in which couples are bound together for all eternity. Many young adults also visit the temple for endowments , ceremonies at which they receive spiritual instructions before such major life events as embarking on Mormon missions to spread the message of the church.

Church members wear white clothing during all temple ceremonies as a symbolic reminder they are in a holy place.

“When people come to the temple … they might think of it like a European cathedral, where you’d walk in and it would be a big, expansive hall,” Elder Holland told CNN. “But our temples are designed differently than that.”

Visitors, he said, should expect “more of an individual journey through rooms of instruction and commitment and worship. That’s the way the experience unfolds inside.”

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The Salt Lake Temple has survived a bombing , a tornado and a 5.7-magnitude earthquake in 2020 that rattled its walls and dislodged the trumpet held by the Angel Moroni statue atop the building. Salt Lake City sits on an active fault line, and the quake served as an urgent reminder of the renovation project’s biggest challenge: to protect the edifice in case of a major seismic event.

To do that, construction crews bolstered the temple’s thick granite walls with vertical cables running from the towers to its base. They also built a new foundation with 98 rubber-and-steel base isolators that act like shock absorbers. Church officials say they will insulate the building from damage during an earthquake, even if the ground beneath it shifts five feet.

Crews also dug a new underground wing of the temple with 100,000 feet of additional space, nine more sealing rooms for marriage ceremonies and a second baptismal font. Like the original font it rests on 12 sculptural oxen, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.

Church officials say these additions — plus revamped corridors, new elevators, improved lighting and more video screens — will allow the temple to serve more people.

How much does all this cost? An LDS Church spokesman declined to say. But unofficial estimates by outside observers place the price tag of renovating the temple at more than $2 billion.

Some critics, however, have complained that some of the temple’s original features were lost in the remodel. These include a grand staircase connecting the first and second floors, and several hand-painted murals, including one of the Garden of Eden, by an acclaimed Mormon artist who studied his craft in Paris.

“Most people do not know the extent to which the interior has changed. And they will be shocked,” said Dr. Micah Christensen, a Salt Lake City art historian who was married in the Salt Lake Temple. “Do I think the pioneer version was better than … what they’ve decided on? I think it’s a false choice between efficiency and preservation. I think you can do both.”

Church officials say reconfiguring the temple’s floorplan meant that some historical features, including the murals, could not be saved. They say those artifacts were documented in photographs and added to the church’s history library. The church also notes that many original features – such as Tiffany stained-glass windows – have been preserved, while others have been restored to their Victorian-era appearance.

Now, after almost six years of being cloaked in scaffolding, the temple is getting ready for its closeup. The LDS Church is billing next year’s public reopening as “a global celebration,” and its Temple Square website shows a countdown clock.

“The Salt Lake Temple open house has particular significance to Latter-day Saints because the profile of the edifice is so iconic, its 40-year construction so symbolic of pioneer sacrifice and resilience, and its location in the heart of Mormonism so evocative of the temple’s centrality to the faith,” said Terryl L. Givens , a research fellow at Brigham Young University and the author of many books on Mormon history and culture.

Temple tours will be offered morning to night, seven days a week. The church expects as many as 25,000 people will pass through the building each day — more than 4 million total over the six-month open house. Salt Lake City tourism officials estimate the event will bring $300 million in new spending to downtown Salt Lake.

“It’s a big deal,” said Derek Miller, president of the Salt Lake Chamber and the Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit representing business and property owners. Miller views the temple crowds as a warmup for 2034, when Salt Lake City will host the Winter Olympics.

“This is sort of our practice run for that,” he said. “We want people to see a vibrant city that has a lot to offer.”

The tours will be free, and reservations are strongly encouraged. Beginning September 1 at 11 a.m. Utah time (1 p.m. ET), visitors can reserve up to six tickets each through TempleSquare.org . Virtual tours also will be offered online.

Those who make the pilgrimage to Temple Square will encounter a host of other attractions and activities, including new exhibits, live concerts and video projections on the ceiling of the tabernacle.

But the temple is the big draw.

“We’re opening these doors to everyone because we believe the temple has a message that’s relevant,” said the church’s Elder Holland. “It’s sacred to us as a people of faith, but it’s (also) something that we believe offers peace and promise to all.”

一个多世纪以来，位于盐湖城市中心的一座拥有六个尖顶的哥特式复兴风格的圣殿一直是耶稣基督后期圣徒教会的精神中心，也是一个不对外开放的神秘圣所。

对于大多数人来说，盐湖城圣殿的内部长期以来一直笼罩在神秘之中，这既引发了人们的好奇，也招致了批评。

这种情况即将改变。经过多年的大规模翻修和结构升级，摩门教将于4月5日向公众开放其标志性圣殿，届时摩门教徒和非摩门教徒均可参观，为期六个月，开放时间前所未有。教会最近向CNN提前展示了圣殿，让许多人得以一窥这个在许多人眼中与世隔绝的宗教的神秘面纱。

“对于全世界来说，这是一个千载难逢的独特机会，可以前来参观一个多世纪以来只对教会成员开放的地方，”耶稣基督后期圣徒教会高级官员马修·S·霍兰长老说。“在这短暂的一段时间里，它将向全世界开放。”

预计将有数百万游客慕名而来，参观这座标志性的宗教地标。自133年前落成以来，这座圣殿一直只对信誉良好的摩门教徒开放。公众参观将于2027年10月1日结束，届时圣殿将再次关闭，仅对教会的忠实成员开放。

这座圣殿是全球200多座摩门教圣殿之一，自2019年底以来一直关闭，进行翻修，包括扩建内部空间、加固地基和进行抗震升级。为了应对预计的大量游客，教会将于9月1日起在线发售定时门票。

摩门教（耶稣基督后期圣徒教会）是一个基督教教派，在全球拥有近1800万信徒。自近两个世纪前在纽约州北部创立以来，该教派稳步发展。摩门教徒长期以来因其信仰和习俗而遭受迫害，流行文化也经常将他们作为耸人听闻（如《大爱》）或讽刺（如《摩门经》）的对象。

位于盐湖城的旗舰圣殿也一直是人们猜测的对象。早期教会成员曾抵制有关圣殿血腥仪式的谣言。1911年，一位心怀不满的前摩门教徒将相机藏在外套下，偷拍了圣殿内部的照片，企图以此勒索教会，但最终未能成功。

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但近几十年来，摩门教采取了一些措施来扩大其信息传播范围，一些观察人士认为，开放这座标志性圣殿的大门六个月也是这项努力的一部分。

“近 30 年来，教会一直在大力开展公共关系活动，力求展现出更加开放、更加平易近人、更加友好的形象，”克莱蒙特研究生大学专门研究摩门教的教授马修·鲍曼说道。

“这次寺庙开放日的目的就是为了吸引尽可能多的媒体人士和外来人士，”他补充道。“这将会是一场非常热门的活动。”

圣殿是圣殿广场的核心，圣殿广场是教会的中心建筑群，其中还包括一座维多利亚时代的集会大厅、一个游客中心、一个倒影池以及圆顶的盐湖城圣殿，后者是教会著名唱诗班的所在地。犹他州拥有五个国家公园，但圣殿广场是该州游客最多的景点。

圣殿的选址是1847年由当时的教会总会会长杨百翰选定的，就在摩门教先驱抵达盐湖谷几天后。杨百翰主持了圣殿的奠基仪式，但未能亲眼见证圣殿的竣工。这座建筑历经40年的建造，于1893年落成。

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“当时没有使用任何现代工具或设备，他们从距离盐湖城中心约20英里的一个小峡谷中开凿出花岗岩石块，”教会长老霍兰德说。“在当时，这是一项了不起的工程壮举。”

从外观上看，圣殿洁白的石砌墙面和高耸的尖顶使其宛如一座童话城堡。其外部装饰充满了象征意义，从代表上帝全视之眼的石雕，到最高尖顶上吹响号角、宣告基督再临的金色天使雕像，无不体现着这一点。（后期圣徒相信，这位名叫摩罗乃的天使曾引导教会创始人约瑟·斯密找到埋藏的金页片，并从中翻译了《摩尔门经》。）

“这是一座非凡的新哥特式建筑，”鲍曼说。“圣殿是天地相接之地，就像罗马天主教的教堂一样……它们建造得又高又窄，让人感觉仿佛被向上牵引，直达天堂。我认为，在所有摩门教圣殿中，盐湖城圣殿在这方面做得最成功。”

然而，寺庙内部的设计却以实用性为主。它没有大型的公共礼拜空间，而是由许多小房间组成，用于举行神圣的仪式。

其中包括洗礼，例如由现有成员代表已故的非摩门教祖先接受洗礼的仪式。这种做法长期以来备受争议，尽管教会声称祖先的名字不会被添加到其成员记录中。

圣殿是举行婚礼仪式的热门场所，这些仪式被称为天国婚姻或印证，新人将在此永远结合。许多年轻人也会前往圣殿接受恩道门仪式，在诸如开始摩尔门传教、传播教会福音等重大人生事件之前，他们会在仪式中接受属灵指导。

教会成员在圣殿的所有仪式中都穿着白色衣服，以此象征性地提醒人们他们身处圣地。

“人们来到圣殿……可能会把它想象成欧洲的大教堂，走进去会发现一个宽敞的大殿，”霍兰长老告诉CNN。“但我们的圣殿设计与此不同。”

他说，参观者应该期待“一段更加个性化的旅程，穿梭于教导、奉献和敬拜的房间之间。这就是内部体验的展开方式。”

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盐湖城圣殿曾遭遇炸弹袭击、龙卷风以及2020年发生的5.7级地震。地震震得圣殿墙壁摇晃，甚至将圣殿顶部的天使摩罗乃雕像手中的号角震落。盐湖城位于一条活跃的断层线上，这场地震也再次凸显了圣殿修缮工程面临的最大挑战：如何在发生重大地震时保护圣殿建筑。

为了达到这个目的，施工人员用从塔楼延伸至地基的垂直钢索加固了圣殿厚实的花岗岩墙。他们还建造了一个新的地基，其中包含98个橡胶和钢材制成的隔震器，起到减震器的作用。教会官员表示，即使地基下沉5英尺，这些隔震器也能保护建筑免受地震损害。

施工人员还挖掘了圣殿的新地下翼，增加了10万平方英尺的空间，增设了9间用于举行婚礼仪式的印证室和第二个洗礼池。与原洗礼池一样，它由12尊雕塑牛像支撑，象征着以色列的12个支派。

教会官员表示，这些新增设施——加上翻新的走廊、新的电梯、改进的照明和更多的视频屏幕——将使圣殿能够服务更多的人。

这一切究竟要花多少钱？摩门教发言人拒绝透露。但外界观察人士的非官方估计显示，圣殿翻修的费用超过20亿美元。

然而，一些批评人士抱怨说，圣殿的一些原始特色在翻修过程中消失了。这些特色包括连接一楼和二楼的宏伟楼梯，以及几幅手绘壁画，其中一幅是伊甸园的画作，由一位曾在巴黎学习绘画技艺的著名摩门教艺术家创作。

“大多数人并不了解内部变化之大，他们会感到震惊的，”盐湖城艺术史学家米卡·克里斯滕森博士说道，他本人也在盐湖城圣殿举行了婚礼。“我是否认为先驱者的版本比……他们最终决定的版本更好？我认为这是在效率和保护之间做出的伪命题。我认为两者可以兼顾。”

教会官员表示，由于教堂平面布局的重新设计，一些历史遗迹，包括壁画，无法保留。他们说，这些文物已被拍照记录，并添加到教堂的历史图书馆中。教会还指出，许多原始特色——例如蒂芙尼彩色玻璃窗——已被保留，而其他一些则已恢复到维多利亚时代的原貌。

如今，在被脚手架遮蔽了近六年之后，圣殿即将迎来它的重现。摩门教将明年的圣殿重新向公众开放称为“全球庆典”，其圣殿广场网站上也设置了倒计时。

“盐湖城圣殿的开放日对后期圣徒来说意义非凡，因为这座建筑的轮廓极具标志性，其40年的建造象征着先驱者的牺牲和韧性，而且它位于摩门教的中心地带，令人联想起圣殿在信仰中的核心地位，”杨百翰大学研究员、摩门教历史和文化著作的作者特里尔·L·吉文斯说道。

圣殿将每天从早到晚、一周七天开放参观。教会预计每天将有多达25,000人参观，在为期六个月的开放日期间，总参观人数将超过400万人。盐湖城旅游官员估计，此次活动将为盐湖城市中心带来3亿美元的新消费。

“这可是件大事，”盐湖城商会和市中心联盟（一家代表企业和业主利益的非营利组织）主席德里克·米勒说道。米勒认为，寺庙的人潮是为2034年盐湖城举办冬季奥运会做准备。

“这算是我们的一次预演，”他说。“我们希望人们看到一座充满活力、有很多值得游览的地方的城市。”

参观活动免费，强烈建议提前预约。从犹他州时间9月1日上午11点（美国东部时间下午1点）开始，游客可通过TempleSquare.org网站预约，每人最多可预约六张门票。此外，还将提供线上虚拟参观。

前往圣殿广场朝圣的人们将会遇到许多其他景点和活动，包括新的展览、现场音乐会和在圣殿天花板上播放的视频投影。

但寺庙才是最大的吸引力。

“我们向所有人敞开大门，因为我们相信圣殿传递的信息与时俱进，”教会长老霍兰说。“对我们这些有信仰的人来说，它是神圣的，但我们也相信它能给所有人带来和平与希望。”