Kiruna, Sweden · 2025
The church that drove away
In 2025 Kiruna's 672-ton wooden church was carried five kilometres on giant transporters, because the ground above the town's iron mine is sinking.
What is said in this reel
This wooden church weighs 672 tons. In 2025, it rolled down a road. Half an hour. The ground beneath it is disappearing. Stay and see why. It stood in one spot for 113 years. Then giant transporters lifted it whole and carried it five kilometers. But the church isn't the strange part. This is Kiruna in northern Sweden, far above the Arctic Circle. Under the old town runs the biggest underground iron mine on earth. It's dug down over a kilometer, and the ground above is sinking. So the town did something that sounds impossible. It's moving the town center three kilometers east. So what do you save first? A church
Credits and sources
- Footage: "Kiruna 2 - daytime" by DRONE EXPLORER (YouTube, CC BY)
- Film: SVT, "Den stora kyrkflytten" (re-uploaded to YouTube by Henrik Ismarker)
- Footage: old church in snow by Ricardo Nevarez (YouTube)
- Map: NASA GIBS
- Narration: AI-generated voice.