Barcelona Temple Groundbreaking Marks a New Chapter for Latter-day Saints in Spain

Read this article in SPANISH, CATALAN & FRENCH

BARCELONA, Spain — Last month, on Aug. 12, a total solar eclipse crossed Spain, turning an ordinary summer day into a rare celestial event. For a few moments, people stopped their routines and gazed into the sky.

This weekend, people in Catalonia gathered for another moment that invited them to look upward — the groundbreaking of the Barcelona Spain Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For Natalia Santidrian Bernal, the two moments offered a fitting comparison. “I think they are similar because with the eclipse, everyone was looking up and trying to see what was happening,” she said. “And with the temple, we are also looking up to heaven and thinking about what is happening and what it means.”

The groundbreaking marked the beginning of construction on Spain’s second temple, a moment generations of Latter-day Saints in the country had hoped to see.

Around 500 people were in attendance, including representatives of the local community, non-governmental organizations and religious leaders. The event was broadcast to congregations of the Church in Spain, Andorra and the south of France.

Elder James W. McConkie III, a General Authority Seventy and counselor in the Europe Central Area Presidency, offered the groundbreaking prayer. He said that “we often refer to a temple as a House of the Lord, a place where heaven and earth intersect”. He continued by expressing his hope that “the Barcelona Spain temple is built and dedicated so the people of Barcelona will feel that truth and be drawn to a place where God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ can be discernably present.”

A temple closer to home

For many members of the Church in Spain, worshipping in the Lord’s House has often meant significant travel.

Natalia fondly remembers as a youth taking a bus for about four hours from Zaragoza to Madrid to attend the temple. She was a child when the Madrid Spain Temple was completed in 1999, and now, decades later, she is watching another temple take shape in Spain — this time much closer to where she grew up.

For Maria dels Ángels Fernández and her husband, Jordi Walter Lacuey, the journey to a temple was even longer. After her parents joined the Church, Maria's family traveled by bus for about 12 hours to reach the temple in Zollikofen, Switzerland. There, they participated in a sacred ceremony that Latter-day Saints believe can unite families beyond this life.

That experience stayed with her. Now, a temple will be built in her beloved Barcelona. “To have a temple here is just an unbelievable dream come true,” Maria said.

The Barcelona Spain Temple is planned as a two-story building of approximately 2,555 square meters on a 2.2-hectare site in Sant Cugat de Vallès, a municipality north of Barcelona. The grounds are also planned to include patron housing, an arrival center and a distribution center and a large garden.

There are currently 25 temples across the European continent, with 12 of them in operation and the rest in construction, announced or under renovation.

For members of the Church, temples are sacred places of worship where they make covenants – or promises - with God and participate in sacred ceremonies they believe strengthen families and draw them closer to Jesus Christ.

The temple has become a place where Natalia regularly seeks peace and guidance. “Whenever I need help from heaven, I try to go to the temple,” she said.

The Barcelona Temple will make that experience more accessible to Latter-day Saints throughout Spain, Andorra and France.

The new temple also carries for Maria and Jordi a significance rooted in the culture of Catalonia.

Jordi describes the region as unique within Spain and said the House of the Lord has implications beyond its spiritual meaning. “We are in a very special place, where the culture is a little bit different from the restof Spain, and having a temple here with us, apart from what it means spiritually, has additional culturalmeaning.”

A new chapter

Today, approximately 72,000 members of the Church Latter-day Saints live in Spain, meeting in about 150 congregations.

“I can’t express what it will mean to me to have the temple 25 minutes away from home. I can’t still believe it. The fact that we are building right here the House of the Lord is a great privilege,” Maria dels Àngels said.

For those gathered at the groundbreaking, the day marked more than the beginning of construction. It marked the beginning of a new chapter — one in which future generations of Church members will have a house of the Lord much closer to home, where they can come closer to Jesus Christ and find direction and peace for their lives.

Reflecting on the significance of the event, Elder McConkie said that “Barcelona was once rightly described as a place of courtesy, grace, refuge, friendship, generosity of spirit, and beauty. Temples exemplify these characteristics and help build them in the lives of those who worship in a temple”. He concluded by saying that “having a temple or House of the Lord in Barcelona is a fitting tribute to the good people of this remarkable city and region.”

Last month, the eclipse gave people across Spain a reason to stop and look toward the heavens.

This month, people gathered in Catalonia to mark the beginning of something intended to serve generations.

The solar eclipse lasted only minutes.

The Barcelona temple represents something intended to last far longer.