Swedish church to be moved intact across Arctic city
On Tuesday residents of the Arctic town of Kiruna loaded the entire building on to a flatbed trailer and started moving it to a new home three miles away.
The complex operation to transfer the 672-ton church away from unsafe ground above Europe's biggest ore mine has become a media sensation in Sweden – where the event was televised to millions.
Kiruna Kyrka, a Swedish Lutheran church which dates back to 1912, is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the country.
With its neo-Gothic exterior, slanting roofs and angled windows, it is hard to disagree with that assessment, especially when the church is photographed beneath thick blankets of winter snow.
An art nouveau altarpiece painted by Swedish prince Eugen, which depicts a pastel landscape inspired by his trips to Tuscany and western Sweden, has been carefully wrapped for the short but potentially risky journey. The same goes for the church's large organ, which contains 2,000 pipes.
Its relocation is part of a two decades-long effort to transfer the entire town of Kiruna to a new site as its history of mining has made the ground weaker with each passing year.
But it is the transfer of Kiruna Kyrka itself which has most fascinated Swedes, with a TV network live-streaming the building's slow and delicate journey.
The operation is expected to take about two days, with the trailer bearing the church travelling quite literally at a tortoise's pace of under 1mph.
King Carl XVI Gustaf was among those who travelled to the town to witness the move along with 10,000 visitors lining the streets in a town of just 18,000 people.
'It is with great reverence that we have undertaken this project. This is not just any building, it's a church,' said Stefan Holmblad, a project manager for the firm LKAB, which mines ore below the town and has funded the operation to move the building.
Mr Holmblad said that LKAB has offered to compensate all villagers for the relocation of the town, or to build their new houses for them.
'But when it came to the church, we decided it was best to move it in one piece. We saw the value in that,' he said, adding that the relocation was 'a unique event in world history'.
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