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 8 hours (Switzerland) this Tuesday. His journey was first blessed by the bishop Åsa Nyström and the priest Lena Tjärnberg, parish priest of Kiruna.
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.
Our explanations: Kiruna, the city that moves, in three questions
Live migration on TV
With thirty cameras installed along the route, Swedish television SVT broadcasts the entire journey live.
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 site started almost twenty years ago, and should continue at least until 2035.
Among the twenty-three cultural monuments already moved, the Church of Kiruna will be the most imposing, explains LKAB which qualifies the trip “unique event in world history”.
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