Why Sweden Is Moving Its 672-Ton Landmark Church

In one of the most ambitious engineering and cultural preservation projects in Europe, Sweden is relocating the historic Kiruna Church, known locally as Kiruna Kyrka.

The 672-ton wooden church, completed in 1912 and voted the country’s “best pre-1950 building” in a national poll, is being carefully moved five kilometers east. The move is part of a decades-long plan to protect Kiruna, a northern town threatened by the world’s largest underground iron-ore mine.

The mine, operating since 1910, has expanded so deeply that cracks have appeared in homes, roads, and public buildings.

To prevent the town from being consumed, Swedish officials began relocating entire neighborhoods in the early 2000s, lifting 25 buildings onto massive beams and rolling them to safety.

The church, one of the final 16 structures to move, required extraordinary preparation, including widening highways and dismantling a viaduct.

Traveling at less than 1.5 km per hour, the church is being slowly piloted across the route over two days, with breaks for Sweden’s traditional fika coffee ritual. Once relocated, Kiruna Church will reopen in its new city center home in 2026.