The Deacon's Bench
After years that included fasting and praying, waiting and wondering, Latter-day Saint eternal marriages soon will be solemnized in the Eternal City.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will open its much-anticipated Rome Temple to public tours from Jan. 28 through Feb. 16. The showcase edifice, reminiscent of ancient Italian architecture, then will be dedicated March 10 through 12 and open to faithful members for religious rites March 19.
On Monday, the Utah-based faith held a news conference in Rome and released photographs of the temple’s exterior and interior.
“It is beautiful,” church apostle David A. Bednar said in a news release. “The craftsmanship is expert and perfect.”
The three-story, 40,000-square-foot structure in northeast Rome comes with curved ceilings, curved walls and hints of colonnades and columns. Not surprisingly, perhaps, in a country dominated by Catholics and the heart of the world’s largest Christian faith, Italy’s first Latter-day Saint temple was inspired by San Carlino, a Catholic church in Rome.
“This had to be one that when you walked onto this site, every person should feel like they were on an Italian site,” architect Niels Valentiner said in the release. “They would recognize it because of the materials, because of the design, and because of the surrounding.”
Check out the rest — and the pictures.
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