Why a 113-year-old, wooden church in Sweden was rolled away

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A 113-year-old church in Sweden arrived at its new home Wednesday after a two-day, three mile journey across the city of Kiruna.

“I think it’s the largest wood building in Sweden,” said Vicar Lena Tjärnberg of the Kiruna Church. “It’s like you’re going into a boat. That’s the same feeling. But it’s a very big boat.”

The huge, red timber church, with its sharp peaks and triangular forms, is the latest building to trundle its way from the old town center to prevent the local iron ore mine from swallowing it up.

“The mine is very important for us here in Kiruna. We are a mine town. If you don’t have a mine, you don’t have the city,” Tjärnberg said. “And the mine is coming closer and the ground is getting cracks.”

On Tuesday, the 600-ton church was gently lifted onto two trucks and slowly rolled away.

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“They have like two trucks with a lot of wheels.” Tjärnberg said. “I think it’s like 130 wheels.”

She said two engineers sat inside the church as it moved, listening for potential cracks.

Kiruna is Sweden’s northernmost city. Relocating many of Kiruna’s buildings is expected to take another 10 years. Tjärnberg said tearing down the church to build a new one just wasn’t an option because of its significance to the community.

“They have grown up in the church, they have played out in the park around the church. They have been like a home for people, and I think that’s Kiruna’s soul in some way,” Tjärnberg said.

For Tjärnberg, the move is bittersweet.

“I’m a little worried about the church too. It’s going to feel different when I open the church door and it’s not in the same place because we have loved this place,” she said. “It’s like the skyline of Kiruna. Everywhere you’re in Kiruna, you can see the church. Or you saw the church because it’s on the move now.”

Until now, she could see the church from her kitchen window.

“For nine years I have said good morning and good night to the church,” she said. “And when I came back today to my home and if it looked out, it’s a construction site I look at.”

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But she sees more opportunity now.

“Every change, you can do something good with it,” Tjärnberg said. “We are going to do something good.”

The vicar hopes to reopen the church by Christmas next year.

A landmark Swedish church arrived Wednesday at its new home after a two-day move across the Arctic town of Kiruna, in a move to allow Europe’s largest underground mine to expand.

The red wooden Kiruna Kyrka, which dates back to 1912 and weighs 672 tonnes, completed its five-kilometre (three-mile) journey around 2:30 pm (1230 GMT).

A musical fanfare celebrated its arrival after a meticulously choreographed relocation that began on Tuesday on two remote-controlled flatbed trailers inching forward at a pace of half a kilometre an hour.

Kiruna’s entire town centre is being relocated because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine, whose ever-deepening burrowing over the years has weakened the ground.

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A stone’s throw from where the structure was inching into place next to the town’s cemetery, Lutheran vicar Lena Tjarnberg held a church service for dignitaries in a tent resembling a “laavu”, the traditional tent of the region’s Indigenous Sami people.

“Our beloved, beloved church began its journey yesterday from its unbelievably beloved location. Now it is on its way home,” she said.

The journey went smoothly for the 1,200-tonne convoy, despite some tricky narrow passages and 90-degree turns, officials said.

The relocation has generated widespread interest, with large crowds thronging the streets of the town of 18,000 people.

Lisa Weber, a 26-year-old real estate agent, had travelled from her home in Germany to Kiruna to be able to witness what she called a “historical” event.

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“It’s something that you do once in your life, or see once in your life, and it’s such a long distance from the old place to the new place,” Weber told AFP, adding it was “very interesting” to see the elaborate process.

LKAB said the new location had been “chosen with great care to preserve its character and connection to the surroundings.”

“The building has been rotated 180 degrees, meaning that the altar now faces west — a symbolic choice that opens the church towards the city and its residents,” the state-owned company said in a statement.

LKAB added it was attempting to create a “cohesive whole” with other cultural buildings set to be moved.

King Carl XVI Gustaf took part in Wednesday’s festivities, exchanging a few words with driver Sebastian Druker, an Argentinian, who controlled the trailers remotely with a joystick.

The 79-year-old king was also expected to take part in an attempt to break the world record for the number of people attending a “kyrkkaffe”, a coffee break in conjunction with a church service.

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The town’s relocation process began almost two decades ago and is expected to continue for years to come. The new town centre was inaugurated in September 2022.

– Criticism –

The company offered to financially compensate those affected by the town’s relocation, or rebuild their homes or buildings. A total of 23 historic buildings have already been moved before the church, according to LKAB.

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Yet many Kiruna residents are unhappy.

Alex Johansson and Magnus Fredriksson, who host a podcast on local Kiruna news, were critical of the mining company.

“LKAB maybe didn’t read the room so well when they destroyed the whole town, and then they stage this huge street party for the people,” Fredriksson told broadcaster SVT, watching as the church rolled slowly down the road.

“It’s like they said, ‘Here’s some storage space for you, Kiruna. Now we’re going to continue raking in the billions from here,” Johansson added.

They were happy the church had at least been saved, and hadn’t ended up “as woodchips like the rest of Kiruna”.

– Iron ore, rare earths –

LKAB, which is extracting iron ore at a depth of 1,365 metres, announced in 2023 that it had discovered Europe’s largest known deposit of rare earth elements right next to the Kiruna mine.

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Rare earths are essential for the green transition, used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles.

LKAB chief executive Jan Mostrom told AFP the deposit was “significant for Europe”, as the continent seeks to reduce its dependence on imports from China.

Activists argue that the mining operations destroy the area’s pristine forests and lakes and disturb traditional Sami reindeer herding in the area.

The relocation of the church alone was expected to cost LKAB some 500 million kronor ($52 million).

Designed by Swedish architect Gustaf Wickman, the church, which measures 40 metres (131 feet) tall, is a mix of influences and includes designs inspired by the region’s Indigenous Sami people on the pews.

The neo-Gothic exterior features slanting roofs and windows on each side, while its dark interior has elements of national romanticism as well as an Art Nouveau altarpiece and an organ with more than 2,000 pipes.

The church’s handblown glass windows were removed ahead of the move, replaced with painted plywood.

The bell tower, which stood separately next to the church, will be moved next week.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

As It Happens Thousands watch historic Swedish church roll extremely slowly to its new home

Clara Nyström was deeply moved when she saw her town’s beloved wooden church appear over the horizon, glimmering in the sun as it moved ever-so-slowly towards its new home.

This week, the historic church in Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town, was slowly moved on wheels to a location five kilometres away.

The two-day, live-streamed event — dubbed “The Great Church Move” — drew thousands of onlookers, and marks a major milestone in the town’s years-long process to fully relocate to avoid getting swallowed up by an underground mine whose expansion has altered the land’s foundation.

“I saw the church, and the sun was shining towards the church, and it’s so beautiful,” Nyström, Kiruna’s municipal heritage officer, told As It Happens guest host Catherine Cullen on Tuesday.

“And then it really hit me, like, it is something very emotional.”

‘It’s a weird thing and a big thing’

The 113-year-old Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — began its journey on Tuesday and arrived at its new home on Wednesday.

But it took nearly a decade of preparation to get to this point.

Hoisted onto a specially designed trolly with 224 wheels, and steered by a driver with a joystick, the 672-tonne building rolled at a speed of 0.5 kilometres down a road that was widened to incorporate its 40-metre width.

The journey took 12 hours spread out over two days, with daily breaks for fika, the traditional Swedish afternoon coffee break.

WATCH | A timelapse of ‘The Great Church Move’: Timelapse footage shows Swedish church slow-rolling to new location Thousands of people gathered this week in Sweden’s northernmost town, Kiruna, to watch its iconic church be slowly moved on wheels to its new home five kilometres away. The two-day, live-streamed event — dubbed “the big church move” — marks a major milestone in the town’s years-long process to fully relocate so it doesn’t get swallowed up by an iron ore mine.

Thousands lined the streets on Tuesday to bid it adieu, while others watched the event live via SVT, Sweden’s public broadcaster.

Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf was on hand for the send-off, which featured a musical performance by KAJ, Sweden’s 2025 Eurovision entry.

Some people traveled from other cities and countries to see the slow-moving spectacle in the town of roughly 23,000 people some 200 kilometres above the Arctic Circle.

Swedish spectator Johan Arveli says he traveled 10 hours to be a part of the event, something he’s been waiting years to see.

“I had to see it because it’s a weird thing and a big thing,” he said.

‘Everyone has a connection to the church’

For the residents of Kiruna, the move has a much deeper meaning.

“Everyone has a connection to the church,” Nyström said.

Built in 1912 as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate a traditional lávvu, a tent-like temporary dwelling used by the Indigenous Sámi people, many of whom call Kiruna home.

Worshipper Anna-Kristina Simma, who is Sámi, says the building is a mainstay in everyone’s life, even if they aren’t going to weekly services.

“You start from when you were a child, a baby, all your life until you get old,” she said.

The church was driven on a specially designed trolley with 224 wheels. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency/The Associated Press)

Nyström, too, feels a special connection to the church, where her own children were baptized.

“I like to be in there, alone inside,” she said. “When you walk in and you have this smell, like wood smell, that is just the feeling of the church. I love it.”

Before it closed its doors last year in preparation for the move, 20 Kiruna couples got married there in one day in a big, whirlwind of weddings .

‘Leaving old Kiruna behind’

Kiruno is home to the world’s largest underground iron ore mine, which supplies about 80 per cent of the European Union’s iron ore, and is now eyeing rare earth elements used in the manufacturing of wind turbines and electric vehicles.

For years, the mine has been expanding, causing land deformations that are cracking foundations of local buildings and putting the town at risk. So, in 2004, Kiruna’s residents voted to relocate the entire community about three kilometres away.

The church, seen here at the start of its journey, is considered a community hub and an architectural icon. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency/The Associated Press)

Some Sámi residents are critical of the mine’s continued expansion, saying it will threaten reindeer migration routes and imperil the livelihood of herders in the area.

“I feel a little bit, a little bit disgusted, actually, because they pour millions of dollars … into this project, moving the church, but they don’t help us in having our culture,” Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chairman of one of the Sami reindeer herding organizations in Kiruna, said.

“Even 50 years ago, my great-grandfather said that the mine is going to eat up our way of life, our reindeer herding, and he was right.”

Stefan Holmblad Johansson, LKAB’s project manager for the move, would not say how much it has cost the mining company.

Kiruna Church as it arrives at its final location in the new city centre. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

Kiruna’s relocation started 10 years ago, and is expected to continue until 2035.

Most of the town’s 1,100 buildings are being demolished and rebuilt, while some others, like the church, are being uprooted and wheeled to the new site.

The church’s move, Nyström says, marks the end of an era for Kiruna, but also ushers in a new beginning.

“The inhabitants of Kiruna have to sacrifice so much. We sacrifice our city,” Nyström said. “It’s leaving old Kiruna behind.”

It will be about two years before the Kiruna Church opens its doors to the public again. Nyström can’t wait to step inside the familiar space.

“I think the smell will be the same,” she said.

With files from The Associated Press and Reuters. Interview with Clara Nyström produced by Livia Dyring

The commanding wooden church, striking for its red hue and angular beauty, has drawn admirers for more than a century to a hill in Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost city.

Soon they will be admiring it elsewhere. On Wednesday, the church was expected to arrive at its new location, three miles away, after trundling off on an unusual road trip.

The 113-year-old house of worship sat on unstable ground at its former site, disturbed by nearby iron mining. Through a feat of engineering, the church was placed on wheels and rolled slowly this week to its new location, an entrancing spectacle that has been broadcast live on Swedish television. Even Sweden’s king planned to swing by on Wednesday.

Residents of Kiruna have been fielding interest in the yearslong relocation of the city’s entire old center.

A historic 113-year-old church threatened by a sinking and unstable foundation is being moved fully intact along a road in the country’s far north. The structure, dating back to 1912, has been lifted onto large trailers and is on its way to Kiruna’s new city center on a three-mile journey that will take two days due to the delicate touch needed to transport such precious cargo.

The church is expected to reach its destination by Wednesday. The relocation of the church is for the structure’s survival. Cracks in the foundation caused by decades of iron ore mining have forced its relocation. Engineers say the fissures in the old city center aren’t big enough for someone to fall through but say they would eventually damage water, electricity and sewage infrastructure.

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One of many impacted buildings

Other buildings were either relocated to the new city center or demolished years ago because of the deterioration of the ground. The clock tower, which once stood on the top of the old city hall, has also been moved to the new city hall.

According to Swedish law, mining cannot be done under buildings. Kiruna’s biggest employer, the iron ore mine company, LKAB, is covering the expenses of the city’s relocation efforts, which are estimated to cost $1 billion.

The relocation effort involves thousands of people and buildings over 30 years, as reported by Reuters.

A monumental effort

Streets were widened along the route to make way for the roughly 130-foot-wide church weighing 672 metric tons (741 tons), and spectators were able to watch and follow from a distance.

“The biggest challenge was preparing the road for such a wide building,” project manager Stefan Holmblad Johansson told the BBC. “We’ve widened it 24 meters (79 feet) and along the way we removed lamp posts, traffic lights, as well as a bridge that was slated to be demolished anyway.”

The engineering feat of moving the church in one fell swoop is being done with the use of steel beams for support and carried by self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs).

Officials said they expect a smooth move, and so far, everything has gone according to plan. Those interested can track the progress through a broadcast on Swedish television.

Similar effort to 2008 Manhattan project

The large-scale engineering job is similar to one achieved in Manhattan in 2008, when the National Park Service relocated Alexander Hamilton’s home, known as the Grange, to bring it closer to its original estate. The home was first moved in 1889 as new streets were slated to be built across Hamilton’s former estate. But the house was saved from demolition after a church purchased it and moved it just two blocks away.

The 2008 effort involved lifting the 300-ton home 35 feet with the use of hydraulic jacks, placing it on a steel track and relocating the house to Hamilton’s original estate. The project took about a month to plan and just a few hours to complete.

The Grange is now located in St. Nicholas Park, which allowed the museum to restore original architectural features to the home.