(19 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kiruna, Sweden – 19 August 2025
1. Wide of Kiruna Church being relocated by workers
2. Wide of machinery moving a church building
3. Wide of construction workers gathering at a site
4. Wide of golden statues on the roof of Kiruna Church
5. Camera tilt down from roof of Kiruna Church to wheels
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Therese Lindroth, LKAB Community Development Team:
"Today is a historical day here in Kiruna. We are moving our fantastic church that you see behind me. We are going to move it half the way today, so it’s 5 kilometres in total."
7. Camera tilt down from church to religious ceremony taking place in front
8. Mid of crowd gathered behind a fence observing an event related to the church
9. Religious ceremony
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Therese Lindroth, LKAB Community Development Team:
"We have worked for 8 years waiting for this day to come. So finally it’s here, so I’m very happy today."
11. Wide of heavy machinery operating
12. Wide of workers overseeing the relocation
13. Mid of construction workers
14. Mid of residents observing from a balcony
15. Wide of crowd gathered
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Therese Lindroth, LKAB Community Development Team:
"The land where the church lays down right now is affected by our mining operations, so we have to move. It’s in the impacted area of the mine, the church today. So we have to move the church to a new position in the new city centre."
17. Mid of construction workers preparing to move church
18. Wide of Kiruna Church
19. Mid of workers operating machinery to relocate church
20. Close up of heavy machinery wheels moving
21. Wide of crowd gathering to witness the relocation
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Frida Albertsson, resident:
"I was very nervous for the church moving because, well, it’s a big thing happening. I was worried that it was going to fall apart, but it didn’t, so I’m very happy."
23. Wide of people gathering outside the historic church in Kiruna, Sweden, amid relocation efforts, church moving slowly
24. Kiruna Church moving slowly
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Johan Arveli, resident:
"I’ve been waiting for this for a couple of years, so we came yesterday and I didn’t know what to expect. I had to see it because it’s a weird thing and a big thing."
26. Various of Kiruna church being slowly relocated with a crowd observing
STORYLINE:
How do you move one of Sweden’s most beloved wooden churches down the road? With a little bit of engineering, a lot of prayer — and some Eurovision for good luck.
The Kiruna Church — called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish — and its belfry are being moved this week along a 5-kilometer (3-mile) route east to a new city center 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 upon Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town at 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the Arctic Circle.
It’s home to roughly 23,000 inhabitants, including members of the Sami Indigenous people, spread over nearly 19,500 square kilometers (7,528 square feet).
Lena Tjärnberg, the church’s vicar, kicked off the move with a blessing Tuesday morning. The journey is scheduled to end Wednesday afternoon.
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.
The Kiruna mine itself dates back to 1910 and the church was completed in 1912.
AP Video shot by Pietro De Cristofaro
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