US EditionSweden Moves Kiruna's 1912 Wooden Church to New Site in Two-Day Operation
- Kiruna Church, a 672-ton, 113-year-old wooden building in northern Sweden, began a rare two-day move to a new town center in August 2025.
- The relocation responds to ground fissures from expanding iron ore mining beneath Kiruna, forcing a wider multi-decade project to shift much of the town since 2004.
- The church was carefully lifted onto remote-controlled trailers that travel slowly along a specially widened 24-meter road cleared of obstructions for the 5-km journey.
- Project manager Stefan Holmblad Johansson said, "This is a very special task for me," adding, "We don't have a margin of error" but confirmed "everything is under control."
- The move preserves a beloved landmark voted Sweden's best pre-1950 building and enables the mine operator LKAB to continue extracting ore while reshaping Kiruna for future decades.
254 Articles
254 Articles
Thousands watch as a beloved Swedish church rolls extremely slowly to its new home
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 so it doesn't get swallowed up by its expanding iron ore mine.
The transfer lasted two days and was carried out by two trailers
The church of the city of Kiruna, threatened by the instability of the ground due to the exploitation of an iron ore deposit, was moved for two days thanks to remote-controlled trailers, which advanced to 500 metres per hour.
catholicworldreport.com
Catholic News AgencySweden saves historic Arctic church with massive move away from mine
The Kiruna Church on the move in northern Sweden, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. / Credit: TorbjørnS/Wikimeda (CC BY 4.0) CNA Newsroom, Aug 20, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA). Sweden’s beloved Kiruna Church is concluding a carefully choreographed crawl across ... [...]
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