SALT LAKE CITY—The Salt Lake Temple restoration is soon to be completed in 2027. In addition to the temple a new Temple Square Visitors’ Center will open to the public May 18, 2026. 

The 39,800-square-foot state-of-the-art center follows the pioneer trek that began with Brigham Young’s 1847 declaration: “Here we will build a temple to our God.”

The facility features the Christus Statue on the main level of the west wing and the Salt Lake Temple Scale Model revealing the interior rooms as narration and music explain what happens in temples.

A new sculpture of Jesus Christ called “Come unto Me” was commissioned for Temple Square and inspired by the Savior’s words in John 15:5. The statue reflects the Savior’s love and care for all.

A full-scale replica of a temple baptistry room in the Temple Square Visitors’ Center. In the temple, baptisms and other essential ordinances are performed by the living on behalf of those who have died without the opportunity. Such ordinances extend the saving grace of Jesus Christ to all people. This service for others is offered in love. ©2026 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Interactive displays include media walls, videos, photos and audio exhibits as well as a scaled model of 11 temples from around the world. A unique addition is the Inside a Temple Tour that takes guests through what the interior of a temple is like and to understand its purpose.

“Our Church leaders really wanted the focus to be on Jesus Christ and the fact that this is His house,” said Elder Brent H. Nielson, an emeritus General Authority Seventy and coordinator for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration. “The visitors’ center gives those not of our faith an opportunity to see inside a temple and better understand what happens there.”

“This visitor center sits in the shadow of the Salt Lake City Temple,” said Young Women President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Emily Belle Freeman at a media preview tour. “Now you may think you have been to a visitor center experience with us before and I am going to tell you this is not that. This experience is like you have never had before and we are so excited about this.”

Freeman said the hope is to be a place where all will feel welcome. “We are hoping this will be a place where you can feel reverence, and we are hoping this is a place where you will come to learn that Jesus Christ is the center of our faith.”

“To all those who come in, hopefully they find a place which is joyful and full of great experiences for individuals, for families, for everybody who’s coming,” said Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Dieter F. Uchtdorf. “The openness is reflected here with all these windows and wonderful glass and wood and the temple behind us and the statue of Jesus Christ right here with us. It reminds me that this beautiful material is at the highest level of quality you can imagine.”

Looking back, how did this all come about? “It came about because a small group of people, many years ago, 200 years ago almost, found a way to worship God in the same similar way as it was done when Jesus Christ walked here.”

These people came together in the eastern part of the United States and unfortunately they weren’t very welcomed, he said. “So they looked for a place far away out of this circumstance of persecution to find a place where they could live their religion, have freedom of religion and they found this place.”

They came here in the middle of the desert and four days after they arrived here they decided this is the spot to build the house of the Lord, said Uchtdorf. “These people settled here and within a few years built this temple. And since they were not only busy building this temple it lasted 40 years.”

The visitors’ center is a milestone ahead of the Salt Lake Temple Celebration, scheduled from April 5, 2027, through Oct. 1, 2027. “We expect $5 million visitors in six months,” Uchtdorf said. “It is something significant and so we hope that the world will come.”

How and when to visit the Temple Square Visitors’ Center

• Hours: Beginning May 18, 2026, the Temple Square Visitors’ Center will be open every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is located on the south side of Temple Square.

For more information and to book tour reservations, please visit TempleSquare.org.