Historic church begins 5km journey across Swedish city to avoid being swallowed by mine
A historical wooden church in Sweden is being moved five kilometres east before the town is swallowed by an iron ore mine.
Thousands of people have travelled to Sweden's northernmost city Kiruna, above the Arctic Circle, to watch the operation, which will take two days and feature performances from Sweden's Eurovision entry KAJ and a visit from the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf.
The wooden Kiruna Church was closed a year ago to prepare for the relocation as the world's largest underground iron ore mine threatened to destroy the town.
As the mine expanded deeper underground, residents began seeing cracks in buildings and roads.
Officials have been moving buildings to a new city downtown, away from the mine since 2004.
But the church - which is about 40 metres wide and weighs 672 tonnes - was a slightly more difficult operation.
Engineers have widened a major road and dismantled a viaduct to enable the church to be moved.
A driver, using a large control box, will pilot the church along the route at a pace of up to 1.5 kilometres an hour.
As is tradition, there will be a pause each day for fika, the Swedish afternoon coffee break.
More than 20 buildings have already been lifted onto beams and wheeled east to the new city, but 16, including the church, remain.
The Kiruna Church, which was built in 1912, was voted the "best building of all time" in 2001 by the Swedish people.
Gifted by the state-owned mining company, the church was established on a hill so worshippers could overlook the rest of Kiruna.
The building was designed to emulate the style of the Sami people, an indigenous group inhabiting parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia.
About 23,000 people live in Kiruna, many of which are Sami.
The neo-Gothic church exterior makes it the most distinctive building in town and has now become a popular tourist attraction.
The church is due to reopen in its new location by the end of next year.
LKAB, the mining company who has funded the move, has not provided the cost.
British tourists Anita and Don Haymes travelled to Kiruna for the third time to see the church relocated.
'It's an amazing feat that they are doing,' Anita Haymes said.
'It'll be interesting to see it moving, unbelievable.'
But not everyone is supportive of the move.
Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, who is the chairman of one of the Sami reindeer herding organisations in Kiruna, said LKAB's plans for a new mine could threaten reindeer migration routes and the livelihood of herders in the area.
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