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Korea Herald
5 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Historic Swedish church on the move in logistical feat
KIRUNA, Sweden (AFP) -- With great fanfare, a historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings began its slow move from its home in the Arctic town of Kiruna on Tuesday to allow the expansion of Europe's biggest underground mine. Kiruna's entire town center is being moved because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine that dominates the region, whose ever deeper burrowing over the years has weakened the ground, increasing the risk of collapse in some parts. Kiruna Kyrka, an imposing 672-metric-ton Swedish Lutheran church from 1912, is being moved 5 kilometers on remote-controlled flatbed trailers, inching along at a pace of half a kilometer an hour over two days to the new Kiruna town. The complex and costly logistical operation kicked off after a blessing by Bishop Asa Nystrom and Vicar Lena Tjarnberg, with the trailers' 220 wheels slowly pulling out under sunny blue skies. One of the trickiest parts of the meticulously choreographed journey was the start, officials said, with the 1,200-metric-ton convoy required to make a turn and roll down a slight incline to reach the main road it was to travel on. Throughout its journey on Tuesday, workers in yellow vests and helmets scrambled around the structure, taking measurements and conducting tests to ensure everything proceeded as planned. After a smooth ride, a brief lunch break and frequent technical checks inside the church, the transport stopped for the day around 3:50 p.m., more than an hour ahead of schedule. It was to resume on Wednesday morning and scheduled to arrive at its final destination in the afternoon. "Hopefully tomorrow will be a walk in the park again," LKAB chief executive Jan Mostrom said, admitting he had been "a little worried about this." Unique event The move has generated widespread interest, with large crowds thronging the streets of the town of 18,000 people. King Carl XVI Gustaf was due to take part in the festivities in Kiruna. And Swedish television was broadcasting the entire journey live -- a new iteration of the "slow TV" trend. The town's relocation process began almost two decades ago and is expected to continue for years to come. The new town center was officially inaugurated in September 2022. The relocation of the church alone is expected to cost 500 million kronor ($52 million) and is being paid for by LKAB. Designed by Swedish architect Gustaf Wickman, the church, which measures 40 meters tall, is a mix of influences and includes designs inspired by the region's Indigenous Sami people on the pews. The neo-Gothic exterior features slanting roofs and windows on each side, while its dark interior has elements of national romanticism as well as an Art Nouveau altarpiece. LKAB has called the relocation "a unique event in world history." Other larger, heavier objects have been moved before, but usually in ports or industrial areas -- not through small towns. The roads on the route have been widened, from nine to 24 meters, and leveled to provide a smooth ride. Not just any building Elisabeth Turq, a 66-year-old French tourist who traveled to Kiruna to follow the move, was awestruck. "It's quite remarkable to be able to move such a building," she said. Sami author Ann-Helen Laestadius, a Kiruna native best known for her novel "Stolen," which was made into a Netflix drama last year, said she had mixed feelings. "I'm glad the church is being moved ... anything else would have been a scandal," she told SVT. "It's such a big part of Kiruna's soul." "I was baptized, confirmed and married in this church," she said. "But it is extremely difficult to see your town disappear," she added, lamenting the loss of other landmarks razed in the town's move. LKAB offered to financially compensate those affected by the town's relocation, or rebuild their homes or buildings. "But when it came to the church, we decided it was best to move it in one piece," LKAB project manager Stefan Holmblad Johansson said, saying the move was being handled "with great reverence." "This is not just any building, it's a church." Particular attention was paid to protect both the church's large organ, with its more than 2,000 pipes, and altarpiece, a pastel landscape painted by Sweden's Prince Eugen (1865-1947). The belltower, which stood separately next to the church, will be moved next week.
Int'l Business Times
7 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Historic Swedish Church On The Move In Logistical Feat
With great fanfare, a historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings began its slow move from its home in the Arctic town of Kiruna on Tuesday to allow the expansion of Europe's biggest underground mine. Kiruna's entire town centre is being moved because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine that dominates the region, whose ever deeper burrowing over the years has weakened the ground, increasing the risk of collapse in some parts. Kiruna Kyrka, an imposing 672-tonne Swedish Lutheran church from 1912, is being moved five kilometres (three miles) on remote-controlled flatbed trailers, inching along at a pace of half a kilometre an hour over two days to the new Kiruna town. The complex and costly logistical operation kicked off after a blessing by Bishop Asa Nystrom and Vicar Lena Tjarnberg, with the trailers' 220 wheels slowly pulling out under sunny blue skies. One of the trickiest parts of the meticulously choreographed journey was the start, officials said, with the 1,200-tonne convoy required to make a turn and roll down a slight incline to reach the main road it was to travel on. Throughout its journey on Tuesday, workers in yellow vests and helmets scrambled around the structure, taking measurements and conducting tests to ensure everything proceeded as planned. After a smooth ride, a brief lunch break and frequent technical checks inside the church, the transport stopped for the day around 3:50 pm (1350 GMT), more than an hour ahead of schedule. It was to resume on Wednesday morning and scheduled to arrive at its final destination in the afternoon. "Hopefully tomorrow will be a walk in the park again," LKAB chief executive Jan Mostrom told AFP, admitting he had been "a little worried about this". The move has generated widespread interest, with large crowds thronging the streets of the town of 18,000 people. King Carl XVI Gustaf was due to take part in the festivities in Kiruna. And Swedish television was broadcasting the entire journey live -- a new iteration of the "slow TV" trend. The town's relocation process began almost two decades ago and is expected to continue for years to come. The new town centre was officially inaugurated in September 2022. The relocation of the church alone is expected to cost 500 million kronor ($52 million) and is being paid for by LKAB. Designed by Swedish architect Gustaf Wickman, the church, which measures 40 metres (131 feet) tall, is a mix of influences and includes designs inspired by the region's Indigenous Sami people on the pews. The neo-Gothic exterior features slanting roofs and windows on each side, while its dark interior has elements of national romanticism as well as an Art Nouveau altarpiece. LKAB has called the relocation "a unique event in world history". Other larger, heavier objects have been moved before, but usually in ports or industrial areas -- not through small towns. The roads on the route have been widened, from nine to 24 metres, and levelled to provide a smooth ride. Elisabeth Turq, a 66-year-old French tourist who travelled to Kiruna to follow the move, was awestruck. "It's quite remarkable to be able to move such a building," she told AFP. Sami author Ann-Helen Laestadius, a Kiruna native best known for her novel "Stolen", which was made into a Netflix drama last year, said she had mixed feelings. "I'm glad the church is being moved... anything else would have been a scandal," she told SVT. "It's such a big part of Kiruna's soul. "I was baptised, confirmed and married in this church," she said. "But it is extremely difficult to see your town disappear," she added, lamenting the loss of other landmarks razed in the town's move. LKAB offered to financially compensate those affected by the town's relocation, or rebuild their homes or buildings. "But when it came to the church, we decided it was best to move it in one piece," LKAB project manager Stefan Holmblad Johansson told AFP, saying the move was being handled "with great reverence". "This is not just any building, it's a church." The belltower, which stood separately next to the church, will be moved next week. The wooden church in Kiruna, northern Sweden, is being moved as part of a relocation of the city centre AFP The 672-tonne structure is being moved on remote-controlled flatbed trailers at half a kilometre an hour over two days AFP The move is being broadcast live on Swedish television and has attracted huge interest AFP The state-owned operator of the Kiruna iron ore mine, LKAB, has offered to compensate those affected by the relocation AFP
Boston Globe
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Swedish church is being moved down the road
Lena Tjärnberg, the church's vicar, kicked off the move with a blessing Tuesday morning after the church was lifted on beams to be wheeled across town. Thousands of spectators lined the streets, bundled up in layers for strong winds and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), as the church inched along for hours at a glacial pace. The journey is scheduled to end on Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement In 2001, the Swedish people voted the wooden church the 'best building of all time, built before 1950' in a poll connected to the Ministry of Culture. Built on a hill so worshippers could overlook Kiruna, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate the Sami style as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company. The Kiruna mine itself dates back to 1910, and the church was completed in 1912. Its neo-Gothic exterior is considered the town's most distinctive building, and tourists regularly traveled there before it was closed a year ago to prepare for the relocation. It's set to reopen in the new location at the end of 2026. Advertisement Tjärnberg said the final service in the old spot was bittersweet. 'The last day you go down the stairs and close the church door, you know it's going to be several years before you can open it — and in a new place,' she said. 'We don't know how it's going to feel to open the door.' This week's move has turned into a two-day, highly choreographed spectacle, run by LKAB and featuring an appearance by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. Musical performances include a set from KAJ, Sweden's 2025 Eurovision entry that was the bookies' favorite to win this year's contest. It lost out to the classically trained countertenor JJ of Austria. SVT, Sweden's national broadcaster, is livestreaming and billing it as 'The Great Church Walk' to play off its success with the spring showing of 'The Great Moose Migration' that has enthralled millions of viewers annually since 2019. Known for both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights, Kiruna and the surrounding area are a major draw year-round for visitors to Swedish Lapland. The region also features the Aurora Sky Station, the Icehotel, and Kebnekaise, the Nordic country's highest mountain. British tourists Anita and Don Haymes had already trekked to Kiruna twice before this year's trip. When they heard about the church's move, they changed their itinerary to ensure they'd be here for it. 'It's an amazing feat that they are doing,' Anita Haymes said Sunday. 'It'll be interesting to see it moving, unbelievable.' Swedish spectator Johan Arveli traveled 10 hours to be part of Tuesday's crowd. Advertisement 'I've been waiting for this for a couple of years,' he said. 'I didn't know what to expect. I had to see it because it's a weird thing and a big thing.' But not everyone is thrilled about LKAB's extravaganza. Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chairman of one of the Sami reindeer herding organizations in Kiruna, said LKAB's plans for a new mine could threaten reindeer migration routes and imperil the livelihood of herders in the area. The move of Kiruna's town center has been in the works since 2004. As the mine expanded deeper underground, residents began seeing cracks in buildings and roads. To reach a new depth of 4,478 feet — and to prevent Kiruna from being swallowed up — officials began moving buildings to a new downtown at a safe distance from the mine. As of July, 25 buildings had been lifted onto beams and wheeled east. Sixteen, including the church, remain. At approximately 131 feet wide with a weight of 741 tons, the church required extra effort. Engineers widened a major road from 30 to 79 feet and dismantled a viaduct to make way for a new intersection. A driver, using a large control box, is piloting the church through the route as it travels roughly 12 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday, with a pause each day for fika, the traditional Swedish afternoon coffee break. It's expected to move at a varying pace between 0.31 and 0.93 miles per hour. Frida Albertsson, who moved to Kiruna six months ago, said she was initially 'very nervous' about the church's move. 'I was worried that it was going to fall apart,' she said Tuesday. 'But it didn't, so I'm very happy.' Advertisement
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The ‘big church move': Swedish town begins to roll historic building 5km
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 'Den stora kyrkflytten' (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 lávvu (a Sámi 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.
News18
13 hours ago
- News18
Swedish church being moved down the road before a mine swallows its town
Agency: Kiruna(Sweden), Aug 19 (AP) How do you move one of Sweden's most beloved wooden churches down the road? With a little engineering, a lot of prayer — and some Eurovision for good luck. The Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — is being moved this week along a 5-kilometre route east as part of the town's relocation. It's happening because the world's largest underground iron-ore mine is threatening to swallow the town. This week, thousands of visitors have descended on Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost town at 200 kilometres above the Arctic Circle. It's home to roughly 23,000 people, including members of the Sami Indigenous people, spread over nearly 19,500 square kilometres . Lena Tjärnberg, the church's vicar, kicked off the move with a blessing Tuesday morning after the church was lifted on beams to be wheeled across town. Thousands of spectators lined the streets, bundled up in layers for strong winds and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius , as the church inched along for hours at a glacial pace. The journey is scheduled to end Wednesday afternoon. A gift from the mining company In 2001, the Swedish people voted the wooden church the 'best building of all time, built before 1950" in a poll connected to the Ministry of Culture. Built on a hill so worshippers could overlook Kiruna, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate the Sami style as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company. The Kiruna mine itself dates back to 1910 and the church was completed in 1912. Its neo-Gothic exterior is considered the town's most distinctive building, and tourists regularly travelled there before it was closed a year ago to prepare for the relocation. It's set to reopen in the new location at the end of 2026. Tjärnberg said the final service in the old spot was bittersweet. 'The last day you go down the stairs and close the church door, you know it's going to be several years before you can open it — and in a new place," she said. 'We don't know how it's going to feel to open the door." A livestreamed spectacle This week's move has turned into a two-day, highly choreographed spectacle, run by LKAB and featuring an appearance by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. Musical performances include a set from KAJ, Sweden's 2025 Eurovision entry that was the bookies' favourite to win this year's contest. It lost out to classically trained countertenor JJ of Austria. SVT, Sweden's national broadcaster, is livestreaming and billing it as 'The Great Church Walk" to play off its success with the spring showing of 'The Great Moose Migration" that has enthralled millions of viewers annually since 2019. Known for both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights, Kiruna and the surrounding area is a major draw year-round for visitors to Swedish Lapland. The region also features the Aurora Sky Station, the Icehotel and Kebnekaise, the Nordic country's highest mountain. British tourists Anita and Don Haymes had already trekked to Kiruna twice before this year's trip. When they heard about the church's move, they changed their itinerary to ensure they'd be here for it. 'It's an amazing feat that they are doing," Anita Haymes said Sunday. 'It'll be interesting to see it moving, unbelievable." Swedish spectator Johan Arveli traveled 10 hours to be part of Tuesday's crowd. 'I've been waiting for this for a couple of years," he said. 'I didn't know what to expect. I had to see it because it's a weird thing and a big thing." But not everyone is thrilled about LKAB's extravaganza. Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, 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 imperil the livelihood of herders in the area. The mechanics behind the move The move of Kiruna's town centre has been in the works since 2004. As the mine expanded deeper underground, residents began seeing cracks in buildings and roads. In order to reach a new depth of 1,365 metres — and to prevent Kiruna from being swallowed up — officials began moving buildings to a new downtown at a safe distance from the mine. As of July, 25 buildings had been lifted onto beams and wheeled east. Sixteen, including the church, remain. At approximately 40 metres wide with a weight of 672 metric tons , the church required extra effort. Engineers widened a major road from 9 metres to 24 metres and dismantled a viaduct to make way for a new intersection. A driver, using a large control box, is piloting the church through the route as it travels roughly 12 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday — with a pause each day for fika, the traditional Swedish afternoon coffee break. It's expected to move at a varying pace between 0.5 and 1.5 kilometres per hour (0.31 and 0.93 miles per hour). top videos View all Frida Albertsson, who moved to Kiruna six months ago, said she was initially 'very nervous" for the church's move. 'I was worried that it was going to fall apart," she said Tuesday. 'But it didn't, so I'm very happy." Stefan Holmblad Johansson, LKAB's project manager for the move, would not say how much it has cost the mining company. (AP) RD RD PTI) view comments First Published: August 19, 2025, 23:45 IST News agency-feeds Swedish church being moved down the road before a mine swallows its town Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Loading comments...
