BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Chicago
बीएपीएस श्री स्वामिनारायण मंदिर, शिकागो
📍 Bartlett (Chicago), Illinois
A white stone mandir on 27 acres in Chicago's western suburbs, assembled from some 40,000 hand-carved pieces of Turkish limestone and Italian marble.
शिकागो के उपनगर बार्टलेट में 27 एकड़ में श्वेत पत्थरों का मंदिर — तुर्की चूना-पत्थर और इटैलियन संगमरमर के लगभग 40,000 नक्काशीदार टुकड़ों से बना।
इतिहास History
Chicago's BAPS devotees began meeting in their homes in 1972 and consecrated their first murtis in a building in Glen Ellyn in 1984. They bought the Bartlett land in 1994, opened a haveli there in 2000, and inaugurated the stone mandir on 7 August 2004 after about sixteen months of construction.
Following the Shilpa Shastras, the stone was quarried in Turkey and Italy, carved in Rajasthan by about 2,000 craftsmen and fitted together on site. The mandir has 16 domes, 151 pillars and five pinnacles, and the American Institute of Architects named it one of the 150 Great Places in Illinois.
दर्शन की जानकारी Before you go
- Hours
- Open to visitors 9 am – 6:30 pm daily. The shrines open for darshan in three windows, about 9 – 10:10 am, 11:15 am – noon and 4 – 6 pm, and are closed from noon to 4 pm.
- Dress code
- No sleeveless tops, shorts, or skirts above the knee. Wraps are lent at the haveli.
- Photos
- No photography or video inside any building, and no drones.
- Food
- Shayona Cafe 10:30 am – 7 pm; gift and sweets shop 9 am – 7 pm.
- Come in the morning: the 11:15 am Rajbhog arti is a lovely time to see the shrines
- Sunday Mahapuja runs 8 – 9:30 am
From the temple’s official website, checked in October 2026. Hours change for festivals and seasons, so confirm on the temple’s site or by phone before you travel. General temple etiquette →
दर्शनीय Don’t miss
- Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj in the central shrine, with Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, Sita-Ram, Hanuman and Ganesh
- Carved marble domes and pillars inside the 22,000-square-foot mandir
- The haveli cultural centre beside the mandir
- Diwali night, with Annakut and fireworks
उत्सव Festivals
Photo: bogdanstepniak · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons