A Swedish Lutheran church yesterday concluded a carefully choreographed crawl across an Arctic mining town, completing a two-day, 5-kilometre journey that successfully saved the 113-year-old landmark from destruction. Source: CNA.
The mammoth move has seen the wooden structure, weighing over 545,000 kilograms, transported on specialised trailers travelling at about 500 metres per hour.
Located 145 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden’s Lapland region, Kiruna is not only the northernmost city in Sweden but also sits atop one of the planet’s richest iron ore deposits, which has been mined continuously since the 1890s.
The relocation is part of Kiruna’s broader urban transformation, required because of subsidence – the gradual sinking of the ground triggered by the nearby iron ore mine.
More recently, Europe’s largest deposit of rare earths was located in the area.
Lena Tjärnberg, vicar of the Protestant parish, blessed the beginning of the historic relocation on Monday morning, acknowledging both the necessity and heartbreak of departing the church’s original site after more than a century of ministry.
“The church is leaving from a place where it truly belongs,” Rev Tjärnberg told the BBC, which covered the unprecedented engineering feat.
“Everyone understands that it must be moved: We live in a mining community that depends on the mine.”
The red wooden church — voted Sweden’s most beautiful building constructed before 1950 in a 2001 national poll — was designed by architect Gustaf Wickman between 1909 and 1912 as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company, to the local congregation.
LKAB’s expanding mining operations created the crisis requiring the church’s relocation.
The company announced in 2004 that mining near Kiruna’s city centre threatened to damage inhabited areas and infrastructure in the coming decades.
The relocation required extensive engineering preparation spanning eight years and costing an estimated 500 million Swedish kronor ($A81 million).
FULL STORY
Sweden saves historic Arctic church with massive move away from mine (By AC Wimmer, CNA)
