The magnificent red wooden church of Kiruna, in northern Sweden, began its migration on Tuesday morning to its new location, a symbolic stage of the city move to allow the expansion of an iron mine.
Responsible on a special convoy – beams and two rows of trailers, Kiruna Kyrka, a Lutheran church inaugurated in 1912 and considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Sweden, moves very slowly – between 500 meters and 1 km/h since 6:00 GMT. His journey was first blessed by the bishop Åsa Nyström and the priest Lena Tjärnberg, parish priest of Kiruna.
With thirty cameras installed along the route, Swedish television SVT broadcasts the whole journey in this version of Téléscargot live.
After a path of approximately 5 km, the church must reach its destination Wednesday after a major logistics operation, under the eyes of more than 10,000 people expected, in addition to the 18,000 inhabitants of the city, massaged behind safety barriers under a blue sky. King Carl XVI Gustaf will be among the spectators according to the trip.
The relocation of an entire city
The whole downtown Kiruna is being relocated due to the exploitation of an immense deposit of iron ore by the LKAB group.
As mining activities have extended, the objective being to dig more deeper – the company extracted today 1365 meters deep – the stability of the soil under Kiruna has weakened, increasing the risk of collapse in certain areas.
The new city center was inaugurated in September 2022. The movement of the church, entirely funded by LKAB, should cost 500 million crowns (44.8 million euros).
An architectural heritage to preserve
40 meters wide and weighing 672 tonnes, the imposing church, designed by the Swedish architect Gustaf Wickman, mixes different architectural influences. Sami reasons of inspiration, Aboriginal people in the region, adorn the benches.
Among the twenty-three cultural monuments already moved, the Church of Kiruna will be the most imposing, explains LKAB which qualifies the trip “a unique event in world history”.
This architectural jewel “has been meticulously studied in the perspective of its displacement so that cultural values are preserved in the best possible way, in particular by ensuring that the altarpiece and the organ are carefully moved,” says the industrialist.
The routes on the journey have been extended and leveled to ensure a smooth transfer, a process that took a year according to LKAB. The bell tower, which stands separately next to the church, will be moved next week.
Between compensation and preservation
The company proposed either to compensate financially all the people assigned by the relocation of the city, or to rebuild their homes or buildings.
“As for the church, we decided that it was better to move it to one piece,” said Stefan Holmblad Johansson, project manager at the industrialist, who claims to have undertaken the project with “a great reverence”. “It is not an ordinary building, it is a church,” he insisted.
AFP/Miro