In 1995, LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley announced plans to construct an LDS temple in Venezuela. Immediately following that announcement, a search was conducted to find a suitable site on which to build. Several properties were considered over the next eighteen months but none was chosen. It was finally decided the temple would be built in the city of Caracas on land that the church already owned.[1] The groundbreaking of the Caracas Venezuela Temple took place in 1999.
Unexpected obstacles occurred during the construction of the temple. When digging the foundation, excavators discovered an underground spring. When the water was diverted, the excavation continued. However, the digging caused two major landslides. The first landslide did not cause any damage, but the second did. Eight tons of earth and materials were shifted in the slide. Despite these setbacks, the work was completed in just over a year and a half.
When Hinckley dedicated the temple on August 20, 2000, nearly six thousand members of the LDS Church were in attendance.[2] The Caracas Venezuela Temple has a total of 15,332 square feet (1,424.4 m2), two ordinance rooms, and two sealing rooms.[3]
In 2020, the Caracas Venezuela Temple was closed temporarily during the year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.[4]
