KIRUNA, Sweden (AP) — How do you move one of Sweden’s most beloved wooden churches down the road?
With a little engineering, a lot of prayer — and some Eurovision for good luck.
The Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — is being moved this week along a 5-kilometer (3-mile) route east as part of the town’s relocation.
It’s happening because the world’s largest underground iron-ore mine is threatening to swallow the town.
This week, thousands of visitors have descended on Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town at 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the Arctic Circle.
It’s home to roughly 23,000 people, including members of the Sami Indigenous people, spread over nearly 19,500 square kilometers (7,528 square miles).
Lena Tjärnberg, the church’s vicar, kicked off the move with a blessing Tuesday morning after the church was lifted on beams to be wheeled across town.
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Thousands of spectators lined the streets, bundled up in layers for strong winds and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), as the church inched along for hours at a glacial pace.
The journey is scheduled to end Wednesday afternoon.
A gift from the mining company
In 2001, the Swedish people voted the wooden church the “best building of all time, built before 1950” in a poll connected to the Ministry of Culture. Built on a hill so worshippers could overlook Kiruna, the Swedish Lutheran church was designed to emulate the Sami style as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company.
The Kiruna mine itself dates back to 1910 and the church was completed in 1912. Its neo-Gothic exterior is considered the town’s most distinctive building, and tourists regularly traveled there before it was closed a year ago to prepare for the relocation. It’s set to reopen in the new location at the end of 2026.
Tjärnberg said the final service in the old spot was bittersweet.
“The last day you go down the stairs and close the church door, you know it’s going to be several years before you can open it — and in a new place,” she said. “We don’t know how it’s going to feel to open the door.”
A livestreamed spectacle
This week’s move has turned into a two-day, highly choreographed spectacle, run by LKAB and featuring an appearance by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Musical performances include a set from KAJ, Sweden’s 2025 Eurovision entry that was the bookies’ favorite to win this year’s contest. It lost out to classically trained countertenor JJ of Austria.
SVT, Sweden’s national broadcaster, is livestreaming and billing it as “The Great Church Walk” to play off its success with the spring showing of “The Great Moose Migration” that has enthralled millions of viewers annually since 2019.
Known for both the Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights,