Situated in Santiago’s Providencia district, the site of the Santiago Chile Temple is known locally as “Temple Square.” Sharing the block are a meetinghouse, area offices, distribution center, mission headquarters, and patron housing. Beautiful mature trees line the front of the temple while enchanting gardens fill the grounds behind the temple—accented by a focal point water fountain. The Santiago Chile Temple was the second temple built in South America, following the São Paulo Brazil Temple (1978), and the first built in Chile. The Santiago Chile Temple was the first temple built in a Spanish-speaking country. The site for the Santiago Chile Temple was purchased by the Church many years before the temple was constructed with the intention of building a Church school. The open house of the Santiago Chile Temple drew extensive media coverage and visits from numerous government officials and business leaders—several of whom requested Church literature or missionary visits. At the time of its dedication, the Santiago Chile Temple served 140,000 Chilean members, who had joined the Church over the previous 27 years since the Church’s establishment in Chile in 1956.

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Photo Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Intellectual Reserve