Images | 113-year-old timber church begins two-day relocation journey

The red timber church in Kiruna, which dates back to 1912, is being moved at a maximum speed of 500 metres per hour supported by steel beams sitting on self-propelled modular transporters.

The operation to move Kiruna Church along an Arctic road, overseen by contractor Veidekke, is part of an effort to save its wooden walls from ground subsidence as the world’s largest underground iron ore mine expands.

Mine-operator LKAB has spent the last year widening the road for the journey which will take the red-painted church 5km (3 miles) down a winding route to a brand new Kiruna city centre.

LKAB is covering the estimated 10bn Swedish krona (US$1bn) cost of relocating the city over a 30-year period.

Kiruna Church in Kiruna, Sweden, begins its two-day relocation (Image: Reuters/Leonhard Foeger)

LKAB says around 3,000 homes and around 6,000 people need to move. While the church is being moved in one piece, other buildings will be dismantled and rebuilt around the city centre. Others are simply being demolished.

The new city has already seen the construction of hundreds of new homes, shops, and a new city hall.

State-owned LKAB has brought up around two billion tonnes of ore since the 1890s, mainly from the Kiruna mine. Mineral resources are estimated at another 6 billion tonnes in Kiruna and nearby Svappavaara and Malmberget. LKAB is now planning a new mine next to the existing Kiruna site.

The proposed Per Geijer mine contains significant deposits of rare earth elements, as well as iron ore.