Open house for Manti Utah Temple will begin this week

The first images from inside the pioneer-era Manti Utah Temple since the completion of major renovation were released Monday morning by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The release was timed to the start of a media tour of the historic temple for a preview of the public open house that begins Thursday and runs through April 5. (Free open house tickets are available here.) More than 40,300 visitors attended the last public open house over three days after a renovation in 1985.

The photos and video released Monday show some of the improvements designed to prepare a temple originally built for $1 million and dedicated in 1888 for additional decades of service.

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The temple closed on Oct. 2, 2021, to make way for a mix of preservation and restoration work and the installation of new mechanical equipment.

The beloved murals that Minerva Teichert painted on sail canvas attached to the plaster walls of the temple’s world room in 1947 were cleaned and updated. Parma Conservation filled areas of paint loss that better matched Teichert’s original colors, according to an ongoing Teichert exhibit at the Church History Museum.

The murals cover nearly 4,000 square feet and wrap around doors and under windows.

One of the most important jobs during the renovation was to stop the long-running water leak into the east wall where pioneers originally cut the temple into the mountainside.

The water continuously threatened Teichert’s works.

“It has been a very persistent leak for many, many years with several attempts to try to fix it,” Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations, said before the work began. “We hope we will be the final attempt to fix it. Work can then focus on cleaning and preserving the interior.”

Modern workers exposed the wall with a deep excavation and inserted improved waterproofing.

Preservationists varnished the walls of the entire room to protect her murals, according to the museum exhibit.

The murals include the Crusades and the voyage of Christopher Columbus to America on the north wall, the building of the Tower of Babel on the east wall, the establishment of Zion in North America on the west wall and scenes of Abraham, Joseph being sold into Egypt, Moses and the Pilgrims on the south wall.

The Deseret News published another story later Monday after the media tour and interviews with church leaders and preservationists.