Sweden’s 113-year-old Kiruna Church reached its new site on 20 August after a two-day, 5-kilometre journey through the Arctic city. The landmark, often voted the country’s most beautiful building, was lifted from its foundations and rolled east at roughly 500 metres an hour on a 220-wheel, remote-controlled trailer to escape ground subsidence caused by the neighbouring iron-ore mine. The red-painted wooden structure, which weighs about 672 tonnes, left its original hilltop position on 19 August following a blessing by Vicar Lena Tjärnberg and Bishop Åsa Nyström. Engineers widened roads to 24 metres and dismantled a viaduct to clear the route. LKAB, the state-owned miner, financed the 500-million-kronor (US$52 million) operation; the church’s separate belfry is scheduled to follow in the coming days. Moving the church is part of a decades-long plan to shift Kiruna’s entire centre away from Europe’s biggest underground mine. LKAB says subsidence risks mean about 3,000 dwellings and 6,000 residents must relocate, with some buildings demolished and others transported intact. A new city hall, housing and commercial district have already opened, and the overall move is expected to run until at least 2035. The project will allow LKAB to deepen the mine and develop the nearby Per Geijer deposit, which also contains rare-earth elements critical to Europe’s green-tech ambitions. While city officials hail the church move as a symbol of transformation, local Sami herders warn further mining could sever traditional reindeer migration routes, underscoring the social and environmental trade-offs behind Sweden’s quest for strategic minerals.