An 113-year-old Wooden Church in Sweden is Being Moved in its entirety this week to the New City Center of the Town of Kiruna. The Building Must Travel 5 kilometers and the journey is expected to take two days. The Dutch Company Mammoet is helping with the move.
The Move Begins Tuesday Morning With A Blessing From Assistant Pastor Lena Tjärnberg. If all goes accordance to plan, the church will arrive at its destination on Wednesday afternoon.
The 672-Ton Building Slides on trailers at a speed or 0.5 kilometers per hour to its new location. Mammoet, specializing in Lifting and Moving Heavy Objects, is helping with the move.
King Carl Gustaf is Traveling to the North of the Country to View the Project. Eurovision Song Contest Participant This Year Kaj Will Provide Musical Accompaniment. Public Broadcaster SVT is Broadcasting The Trip in its entirety under the title “Moving the Great Church”.
The Church Will Reopen in 2026. The Project is part of a thirty-year operation to relocate six thousand people and numerous buildings. A New Shopping Center and Town Hall Are Already There, A Few Kilometers From The Old Center.
Mining Has Made the Ground Unstable
The Reason for the Move is the Iron Ore Mine of State-owned Company LKAB. The work of the mining company has made the ground on which the city stood unstable. In 2020, mining caused an earthquake with a magnitude or 4.7.
The mine is the largest of its child and supplies approachesely 80 percent of the iron ore in Europe. Lkab is expanding the mining area and can continuous mining for decades. The Company Could also Start Mining Rare Earth Metals. These are needed for, for example, lasers, smartphones and sustainable technologies.
‘Most Beautiful Building in Sweden’
Thousands of Visitors Are Expected to Travel to the Northernmost City in Sweden This Week to View the Move. Accordance to a poll by the ministry of culture, The Church is SEEN as “The Most Beautiful Building Builds Before 1950”.
The Mine Dates Back to 1910. The Church was Built Two Years later as a Gift from Miners to the City. The design contains style elements of the sami, the inhabitants of the area.
‘My mine is swallowing our way of life’
The Local Population Disapproves of the Mining Project. “This is Sami Territory,” Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen Told News Agency Reuters . He is Chairman of the Local Community. “Animals Grazed here and Reindeer Were Born here.”
The Sami Fear That the Reindeer Will No Longer Be Able to Migrate to Another Region with the Change of Seasons If The Plans For A New Mine Go Ahead. That would make herding reindeer “impossible”. Kuhmunen: “Fifty years ago, My Great-Grandfather said that the mine swallow our way of life. He was right.”