'Big church move': century-old Swedish house of worship rolls 5km to new home

After eight years of planning, a cost of more than 500m kronor (£39m) and an early morning blessing, a church in northern Sweden began a slow-motion 5km journey yesterday to make way for the expansion of Europe's biggest underground mine.

- Miranda Bryant

The 672-tonne Kiruna Kyrka, a Swedish Lutheran church inaugurated in 1912, is to be slowly rolled to its new home over two days, at a pace of half-a-kilometre an hour.

In a huge multi-decade operation, the whole of the Arctic town is being moved as an iron ore mine operated by the state-owned mining company LKAB weakens the ground, threatening to swallow the town.

More than 10,000 people, including the Swedish king, Carl XVI Gustaf, were expected to line the streets - which have been widened to accommodate the church - to see the move of the red wooden building. The operation was tested successfully on a 30-metre stretch over the weekend.

In the latest version of "slow TV", dozens of cameras have been set up along the route to enable people across the world to watch what broadcaster SVT is calling "Den stora kyrkflytten" (the big church move).

The church, designed by Gustaf Wickman, is one of Sweden's most-loved older buildings. It is known for its architecture that resembles a lavvu (a Sami hut).