Sweden Forced To Move 672-tonne Kiruna Church On Wheels

Sweden is moving its 113-year-old Kiruna Church connected wheels to flight a elephantine robust ore mine. A €45m feat of engineering, practice and survival.

Sweden puts Kiruna Church connected wheels successful epic relocation:

When nan crushed beneath your municipality starts crumbling acknowledgment to nan world’s biggest robust ore mine, you don’t argue. You battalion up and move. And successful Sweden’s Arctic north, that includes putting nan nation’s favourite religion connected wheels.

A religion connected nan move

On Tuesday, August 19, nan 113-year-old Kiruna Church, a 672-tonne Lutheran landmark often voted Sweden’s astir beautiful building, began its two-day crawl to a brand-new metropolis centre. Perched connected a convoy of remote-controlled flatbed trailers, nan woody elephantine is trundling on astatine half a kilometre an hour, covering astir 5 kilometres (3 miles) successful total.

It is not rather Formula One, but it is drafting a crowd. At slightest 10,000 spectators are expected, including Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, who will watch nan slow-motion spectacle unfold.

Engineering meets Eurovision

The move is portion of a decades-long scheme to relocate astir of Kiruna aft mining weakened nan crushed beneath its historical heart. State-owned miner LKAB, which runs nan immense underground operation, is footing nan bill. The value tag is estimated astatine 500 cardinal kronor (€45 cardinal / £38 cardinal / $52 million). Roads had to beryllium widened to make measurement for nan rolling cathedral.

To support spirits high, Swedish broadcaster SVT has branded nan arena “The Great Church Walk” and is streaming it live. Sweden’s Eurovision 2025 entry, popular enactment KAJ, has besides been booked to execute for nan thousands lining nan route.

‘The religion is Kiruna’s psyche successful immoderate way, and successful immoderate measurement it’s a safe place,’ said section vicar Lena Tjärnberg successful an question and reply pinch Reuters. ‘For me, it’s for illustration a time of joy. But I deliberation group besides consciousness sad because we person to time off this place.’

More than bricks and beams

Kiruna Church is not conscionable celebrated for its size. Designed by designer Gustaf Wickman, nan 40-metre-tall building carries Sami-inspired detailing successful its pews, honouring nan indigenous group of nan region.

But while galore marvel astatine nan relocation feat, nan Sami organization has raised red flags. They pass that nan mine’s continued description is threatening nan accepted migration routes of reindeer herds, which person been cardinal to Sami civilization and livelihood for thousands of years.

The bigger picture

The religion is only nan astir photogenic portion of a monolithic upheaval. Around 3,000 homes and 6,000 residents will yet beryllium moved arsenic nan Arctic municipality reshapes itself astir nan excavation that sustains it and undermines it.

So what do you telephone a 113-year-old, 672-tonne religion that goes walkabout astatine half a kilometre an hour? In Kiruna, they just telephone it Tuesday.

But nan agelong haul is only beginning. Sweden’s relocation is 1 of nan largest of its benignant successful Europe and whitethorn go a world lawsuit study for towns caught betwixt practice and extraction. In Germany’s lignite mining regions – from Lusatia to Garzweiler -hundreds of villages and tens of thousands of group person already been uprooted to make measurement for open-pit coal. Kiruna’s communicative is not unique, but it’s defiant. History doesn’t enactment buried.

Access nan existent Sweden scoop successful English. Don’t miss our conception connected news astir Sweden for nan week’s unmissable stories.

And, remember: dissimilar Kiruna Church, Europe moves fast, truthful don’t get near behind. Read much real-world European news successful English?