The move will probably take place next summer. Planning the move has taken eight years. The journey of a few kilometers from the church takes two days.
The church in Kiruna in northern Sweden will be moved in one piece from the old city center to the new center, about five kilometers away. The move will probably take place next summer or the following. The church is more than a hundred years old and culturally historically valuable building.
– The church will be moved during the snow-free period. We will make a decision on when to move the church in the winter, says the senior project manager of the renovation of the mining company LKAB Joel Ahlquist by phone.
The entire center of Kiruna is gradually moving 3–6 kilometers east of the road of the Swedish state-owned LKAB mine. The world’s largest underground iron ore mine is expanding and requires space.
The city would sink into the ground if it stayed put. The first buildings were moved in 2017. The move to Kiruna was reported in 2004.
“Moving the church itself is not as big a deal as the road works”
It takes two days to move the church, and it has to be lifted onto a wide pallet, with which it can be moved to the new center.
The church can accommodate about a thousand people, and it is about 35 meters wide. The mining company needs to widen the church’s access road. According to Ahlquist, the road work started last winter and should be ready next spring.
– After the church is moved, the road will be narrowed again. The authorities have ordered it. Moving the church itself is not as big a deal as roadworks, says Ahlquist.
If valuable works of art or furniture inside the church cannot be removed, they will be protected during transport.
– The big organ, with more than 2,500 organ pipes, has to be protected, but some parts of the organ can be removed, Ahlquist says.
– The planning of moving the church started in 2016, so this is the eighth year of this project. The biggest work has been obtaining numerous permits, says Joel Ahlquist.
According to him, a total of a couple of hundred people, from builders to administrative workers and museum professionals, are working on the church move. The work requires cooperation with the Finnish Museum Agency and the parish, the municipality and others.
Buildings have been moved, but not in this way and not this big
The transfer of the church is a historical event. Joel Ahlquist recalls that in the 1970s in southern Sweden and in Malmivaara in Jällivaara municipality, a church and other buildings were moved last time.
– But not in this way, says Ahlquist.
He says that the new way of moving the church is done with the help of an electronic “lift truck”. It’s as if the church is being cut from its foundations before being lifted onto a special platform.
One person walks in front of the moving church and guides the pallet during the transport.
In addition to the church, other historical buildings are also moved using the same technique.
– This is not the first building we move. But it is the biggest. That’s the difficulty of it. We still have 21 buildings to move. All the buildings to be moved are historic and unique, says Ahlquist.
The movable houses have been selected from different eras and cultural history professionals have consulted on the matter.
The church was closed at the beginning of June
The Kiruna church belongs to the Jukkasjärvi parish. The church was closed on June 3.
– In the meantime, we organize services in other churches and chapels in Kiiruna, for example in the Jukkasjärvi church, says the deputy vicar of the Jukkasjärvi parish Kristina Fjellström Råman by phone.
The downside of the church’s change is that big events such as confirmations now have to be organized in parts. The portable church in Kiruna could accommodate a thousand people, the church in Jukkasjärvi only two hundred.
According to Fjellström Råman, the new church location could be even better. The security of the transfer does not worry him.
– It is quite cramped in the new center, but I think it will be good. The situation is what it is. I do trust the experts who organize the transfer. They carry the church whole and very slowly, he says.
He says that moving the church and the city is a long and difficult process for the residents, and it is a relief to have one stage, the church move, finally done.
If the church move goes well and as planned next summer, according to Fjällström Råman, the church could perhaps be opened on the first Advent of next year.