Historic Swedish church to relocate on trailers in logistical feat

Kiruna, Sweden: With great fanfare, a historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden s most beautiful buildings is to be moved Tuesday from its l...

Kiruna, Sweden: With great fanfare, a historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings is to be moved Tuesday from its longtime home in the Arctic town of Kiruna to allow the expansion of Europe's biggest underground mine.

Kiruna Kyrka, a Swedish Lutheran church, dates from 1912, but the 672-tonne building will be moved five kilometres (three miles) on remote-controlled flatbed trailers on Tuesday and Wednesday, inching along at a pace of half-a-kilometre an hour to the new Kiruna town.

The complex and costly logistical operation, which is due to begin at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) after a blessing, has generated widespread interest, with more than 10,000 people expected to line the streets of the town of 18,000 people.

King Carl XVI Gustaf will be among those in town following the move. Swedish television will broadcast the entire journey live -- a new iteration of the "slow TV" trend -- with 30 cameras set up along the route, it said.

Kiruna's entire town centre is being moved because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine that dominates the region, but whose ever deeper burrowing over the years has weakened the ground, increasing the risk of collapse in some parts.