After eight years of planning, a cost of more than 500m kronor (£39m) and an early morning blessing, a church in northern Sweden began a slow-motion 5km journey on Tuesday to make way for the expansion of Europe’s biggest underground mine.
The 672-tonne Kiruna Kyrka, a Swedish Lutheran church inaugurated in 1912, is to be slowly rolled to its new home over two days, at a pace of half-a-kilometre an hour.
In a huge multi-decade operation, the whole of the Arctic town is being moved as an iron ore mine operated by the state-owned mining company LKAB weakens the ground, threatening to swallow the town.
More than 10,000 people, including the Swedish king, Carl XVI Gustaf, are expected to line the streets – which have been widened especially to accommodate the church – to see the move of the red wooden building.
The operation was tested successfully on a 30-metre stretch over the weekend.
In the latest version of “slow TV”, dozens of cameras have been set up along the route to enable people across Sweden and the world to watch what is being billed by the broadcaster SVT as “The large church move” (the big church move).
The church, designed by Gustaf Wickman, is one of Sweden’s most-loved older buildings. It is known for its architecture that resembles a tree (and Sma Hut).
On Wednesday, a church service and coffee event will be held in an attempt to break a world record for church coffee. There will also be musical entertainment, including a concert with the singer Carola.
The church is expected to reopen at its new location at the end of next year, but the city’s entire relocation is not expected to be completed until 2035.
The church is one of 23 cultural buildings being relocated in what LKAB has described as “a unique event in world history”. The mine’s operator gave residents the option to either financially compensate those affected by the town’s relocation or rebuild homes or buildings.
The expansion has attracted criticism, including from the Sámi community, who fear that fragmentation of the land will make reindeer herding more difficult and threaten the town’s Indigenous culture and way of life.
Karin K Niia, a reindeer owner and board member of Gabna Sameby, a Sámi village that has its year-round lands in Kiruna municipality, said the moving of the church was a “big show” to distract from the destruction of the town and the culture of its Indigenous people.
The church was just “one small part of Kiruna” that had been chosen to be preserved, she said, accusing the company of “land-grabbing” the grazing territory needed to support Sámi culture.
“It feels rather difficult to see the move of the church when I’m well aware of the consequences that mining activities have on everything around it: biodiversity, the air, pollution of water, reindeer and wildlife in general,” she said.
“They have planned it all in order to get people’s attention, media attention on this state-owned company and their action to preserve the church as a symbol for the cultural heritage of Kiruna.”
Stefan Hämäläinen, senior vice president of urban development at LKAB, said: “The move of Kiruna church is necessary for it to continue to exist at all. LKAB has moved a vast amount of buildings in the ongoing urban transformation that began planning over 20 years ago. We are obliged to compensate for what is affected by the mine. In the same way, we seek constructive solutions when mining operations affect reindeer herding, as it is an important part of Sami society and culture.”
It has previously declined to specify the cost of the move, but on Tuesday the chief executive, Jan Moström, said it had cost more than half a billion kronor. He insisted it was worth the money.
“If the mine is to remain, we have to move Kiruna city centre. Kiruna city centre without the church, I can’t see it – so there are no alternatives,” he said during SVT’s live broadcast.
The altarpiece of the church, a pastel landscape by the late Prince Eugen of Sweden, and the more than 2,000-pipe organ have been carefully wrapped for the journey, and the ground around the church’s former location dug out so that beams could be placed underneath.
“The church is sitting on a beam system, then two rows of trailers were brought in,” the LKAB project manager, Stefan Holmblad Johansson, said. These were slid underneath the beams.
The bell tower, which is a separate structure, will be moved next week.
