STORY: People gathered on Tuesday (August 19) to watch Sweden's landmark Kiruna Church making the slow journey to its new home 5km (3 miles) away.

The unusual sight of the church's relocation is part of an effort to save it from ground subsidence and the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine.

Over two days, the large building will move slowly down an Arctic road, part of a 30-year project to relocate thousands of people and buildings from the Lapland city of Kiruna.

Workers jacked up the 600-ton, 113-year-old church from its foundations and hefted it onto a trailer built especially for the operation.

Mine-operator LKAB has spent the last year widening the road for the journey which will take the red-painted church - one of Sweden's largest wooden structures, often voted its most beautiful - down a winding route to a brand new Kiruna city centre at a speed of 500 metres per hour.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

Sweden’s 113-year-old Kiruna church inches down road towards new location

VIDEO SHOWS: KIRUNA CHURCH BEING MOVED

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: KIRUNA, SWEDEN (AUGUST 19, 2025) (SVT - Must on-screen courtesy 'SVT'. Must remove from all platforms before 2200GMT on August 21, 2025. No archive. No resales.)

1. KIRUNA CHURCH BEING MOVED ON SELF-PROPELLED MODULAR TRANSPORTER (SPMT) TRAILER

2. DOOR OF CHURCH

3. CHURCH MOVING ALONG ROAD

4. GOLD STATUES ON ROOF OF CHURCH

5. CHURCH MOVING ALONG ROAD / PEOPLE WATCHING

6. CHURCH MOVING ALONG ROAD

7. PEOPLE WALKING BEHIND CHURCH

8. PEOPLE WATCHING CHURCH MOVING

9. VARIOUS AERIAL SHOTS OF CHURCH ON ROAD

10. VARIOUS OF CHURCH MOVING ALONG ROAD

11. WORKER CHECKING TRAILER

12. CHURCH MOVING ALONG ROAD

13. AERIAL SHOT OF CHURCH ON ROAD