KIRUNA, Sweden (AP) — How do you move one of Sweden’s most beloved wooden churches down the road? With a little engineering, a lot of prayer — and some Eurovision for good luck.
The Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — is being moved this week along a 5-kilometer (3-mile) route east as part of the town’s relocation. It’s happening because the world’s largest underground iron-ore mine is threatening to swallow the town.
This week, thousands of visitors have descended on Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost town at 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the Arctic Circle. It's home to roughly 23,000 people, including members of the Sami Indigenous people, spread over nearly 19,500 square kilometers (7,528 square miles).
Lena Tjärnberg, the church’s vicar, kicked off the move with a blessing Tuesday morning after the church was lifted on beams to be wheeled across town.
Thousands of spectators lined the streets, bundled up in layers for strong winds and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), as the church inched along for hours at a glacial pace.
The journey is scheduled to end Wednesday afternoon.
A gift from the mining company
In 2001, the Swedish people voted the wooden church the “best building of all time, built before 1950” in a poll connected to the Ministry of Culture. Built on a hill so worshippers could overlook Kiruna, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate the Sami style as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company.
The Kiruna mine itself dates back to 1910 and the church was completed in 1912. Its neo-Gothic exterior is considered the town's most distinctive building, and tourists regularly traveled there before it was closed a year ago to prepare for the relocation. It's set to reopen in the new location at the end of 2026.
Tjärnberg said the final service in the old spot was bittersweet.
"The last day you go down the stairs and close the church door, you know it's going to be several years before you can open it — and in a new place,” she said. “We don't know how it's going to feel to open the door.”
A livestreamed spectacle
This week's move has turned into a two-day, highly choreographed spectacle, run by LKAB and featuring an appearance by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. Musical performances include a set from KAJ, Sweden’s 2025 Eurovision entry that was the bookies’ favorite to win this year’s contest. It lost out to classically trained countertenor JJ of Austria.
SVT, Sweden's national broadcaster, is livestreaming and billing it as “The Great Church Walk” to play off its success with the spring showing of “The Great Moose Migration” that has enthralled millions of viewers annually since 2019.
Known for both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights, Kiruna and the surrounding area is a major draw year-round for visitors to Swedish Lapland. The region also features the Aurora Sky Station, the Icehotel and Kebnekaise, the Nordic country’s highest mountain.
British tourists Anita and Don Haymes had already trekked to Kiruna twice before this year's trip. When they heard about the church's move, they changed their itinerary to ensure they'd be here for it.
“It's an amazing feat that they are doing,” Anita Haymes said Sunday. “It'll be interesting to see it moving, unbelievable.”
Swedish spectator Johan Arveli traveled 10 hours to be part of Tuesday's crowd.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a couple of years," he said. "I didn’t know what to expect. I had to see it because it’s a weird thing and a big thing.”
But not everyone is thrilled about LKAB's extravaganza. Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chairman of one of the Sami reindeer herding organizations in Kiruna, said LKAB's plans for a new mine could threaten reindeer migration routes and imperil the livelihood of herders in the area.
The mechanics behind the move
The move of Kiruna's town center has been in the works since 2004. As the mine expanded deeper underground, residents began seeing cracks in buildings and roads. In order to reach a new depth of 1,365 meters (4,478 feet) — and to prevent Kiruna from being swallowed up — officials began moving buildings to a new downtown at a safe distance from the mine.
As of July, 25 buildings had been lifted onto beams and wheeled east. Sixteen, including the church, remain.
At approximately 40 meters (131 feet) wide with a weight of 672 metric tons (741 tons), the church required extra effort. Engineers widened a major road from 9 meters to 24 meters (30 to 79 feet) and dismantled a viaduct to make way for a new intersection.
A driver, using a large control box, is piloting the church through the route as it travels roughly 12 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday — with a pause each day for fika, the traditional Swedish afternoon coffee break. It's expected to move at a varying pace between 0.5 and 1.5 kilometers per hour (0.31 and 0.93 miles per hour).
Frida Albertsson, who moved to Kiruna six months ago, said she was initially “very nervous” for the church's move.
“I was worried that it was going to fall apart," she said Tuesday. "But it didn’t, so I’m very happy.”
Stefan Holmblad Johansson, LKAB's project manager for the move, would not say how much it has cost the mining company.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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