Thousands watch as a beloved Swedish church rolls extremely slowly to its new home

Clara Nyström was deep moved when she saw her town's love wooden christian church seem o'er the horizon, glimmering in the sun as it moved ever-so-slowly towards its new home. 

This week, the historic church in Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost town, was slowly moved on wheels to a location five kilometres away. 

The two-day, live-streamed event — dubbed "The Great Church Move" — drew thousands of onlookers, and marks a major milestone in the town's years-long process to fully relocate to avoid getting swallowed up by an underground mine whose expansion has altered the land's foundation. 

"I saw the church, and the sun was shining towards the church, and it's so beautiful," Nyström, Kiruna's municipal heritage officer, told As It Happens guest host Catherine Cullen on Tuesday. 

"And then it really hit me, like, it is something very emotional."

The 113-year-old Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — began its journey on Tuesday and arrived at its new home on Wednesday. 

But it took nearly a decade of preparation to get to this point.

Hoisted onto a specially designed trolly with 224 wheels, and steered by a driver with a joystick, the 672-tonne building rolled at a speed of 0.5 kilometres down a road that was widened to incorporate its 40-metre width.

The journey took 12 hours spread out over two days, with daily breaks for fika, the traditional Swedish afternoon coffee break.

Timelapse footage shows Swedish church slow-rolling to new location

Thousands lined the streets on Tuesday to bid it adieu, while others watched the event live via SVT, Sweden's public broadcaster. 

Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf was on hand for the send-off, which featured a musical performance by KAJ, Sweden's 2025 Eurovision entry. 

Some people traveled from other cities and countries to see the slow-moving spectacle in the town of roughly 23,000 people some 200 kilometres above the Arctic Circle. 

Swedish spectator Johan Arveli says he traveled 10 hours to be a part of the event, something he's been waiting years to see.

"I had to see it because it's a weird thing and a big thing," he said.

For the residents of Kiruna, the move has a much deeper meaning. 

"Everyone has a connection to the church," Nyström said. 

Built in 1912 as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate a traditional lávvu, a tent-like temporary dwelling used by the Indigenous Sámi people, many of whom call Kiruna home. 

Worshipper Anna-Kristina Simma, who is Sámi, says the building is a mainstay in everyone's life, even if they aren't going to weekly services.

"You start from when you were a child, a baby, all your life until you get old," she said.

Nyström, too, feels a special connection to the church, where her own children were baptized.

"I like to be in there, alone inside," she said. "When you walk in and you have this smell, like wood smell, that is just the feeling of the church. I love it."

Before it closed its doors last year in preparation for the move, 20 Kiruna couples got married there in one day in a big, whirlwind of weddings.

Kiruno is home to the world's largest underground iron ore mine, which supplies about 80 per cent of the European Union's iron ore, and is now eyeing rare earth elements used in the manufacturing of wind turbines and electric vehicles.

For years, the mine has been expanding, causing land deformations that are cracking foundations of local buildings and putting the town at risk. So, in 2004, Kiruna's residents voted to relocate the entire community about three kilometres away.

Some Sámi residents are critical of the mine's continued expansion, saying it will threaten reindeer migration routes and imperil the livelihood of herders in the area.

"I feel a little bit, a little bit disgusted, actually, because they pour millions of dollars … into this project, moving the church, but they don't help us in having our culture," Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chairman of one of the Sami reindeer herding organizations in Kiruna, said.

"Even 50 years ago, my great-grandfather said that the mine is going to eat up our way of life, our reindeer herding, and he was right."

Stefan Holmblad Johansson, LKAB's project manager for the move, would not say how much it has cost the mining company.

Kiruna's relocation started 10 years ago, and is expected to continue until 2035. 

Most of the town's 1,100 buildings are being demolished and rebuilt, while some others, like the church, are being uprooted and wheeled to the new site. 

The church's move, Nyström says, marks the end of an era for Kiruna, but also ushers in a new beginning. 

"The inhabitants of Kiruna have to sacrifice so much. We sacrifice our city," Nyström said. "It's leaving old Kiruna behind."

It will be about two years before the Kiruna Church opens its doors to the public again. Nyström can't wait to step inside the familiar space.

"I think the smell will be the same," she said. 

Add some “good” to your morning and evening.

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