A church that moves through the streets of a city. The image is reminiscent of “the shuffling churches of Uikumene” that Jan Terlouw once performed in his youth classic King of Katoren.
But this church does not move magically in a fictional city, and is not controlled by the sounds of an organ. It is an existing church in Kiruna in Sweden, which is currently moving on wheels by the Dutch transport company Mammoet.
The 133 year old Kiruna Kyrka672 tons heavy, shifts to her new location on Tuesday and Wednesday, five kilometers away. Every hour are covered a few hundred meters. With this literal snail walk, the displacement is hardly perceptible. Yet the spectacle is completely by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT broadcast. On Tuesday, people also look in the town above the Arctic Circle, at an appropriate distance, how the church slowly but surely moves eastwards.
The reason for the relocation: due to years of activities of the adjacent iron ore, the church threatens to sag. And it doesn’t stay with the wooden church. The move is part of a broader project, whereby entire parts of Kiruna are moved. The project must be ready in 2035, including a new city center.
The costs for the relocation, more than half a billion Swedish crowns (around 45 million euros), are covered by the Swedish state mine company LKAB, which manages the iron ore at Kiruna. Lkab sees it as its duty to move the church and compensate for the environment for the damage, a spokesperson said to Swedish media.
Indigenous population critical
The relocation of the city center has been prepared since 2013. Now that it is the turn of the most impressive building, the spectacle does not go unnoticed. Among other things, the Swedish king Carl Gustav travels on Wednesday to the far north to witness the arrival of the church, which was once named the most beautiful before 1950 constructed building of Sweden.
Yet there is also criticism. According to members of the Sami community, the indigenous and originally nomadic people who live in northern Scandinavia, it is a big show that distracts from the reality of the destruction of Kiruna and of the indigenous culture. The area is rich in earth metals that are used in, among other things, solar panels and electric cars. Expansion of the mines is at the expense of nature and the habitat of the Sami, a people who are known for keeping reindeer.
“It feels difficult to see the church move while I am aware of the consequences of mining for everything around it,” says a Sami representative The Guardian. “Biodiversity, air, water pollution, reindeer and nature in general.”
Mijnbouwbedrijf LKAB says that there is a tense relationship between his activities and keeping reindeer. “We are looking for constructive solutions when mining has influence on reindeer hats, because it is an important part of the culture and community of the SAMI,” a representative of LKAB told the British newspaper.
Jan Terlouws protagonist Stach eventually managed to lead the competing churches of Uikumene with a well -thought out symphony to a harmonious center, the central square of the city. The churches, each with its own current, decided to bridge their differences and to unite into one church. Or the new location of the Kiruna Kyrka Also for such a fusion between the different interests in the city will still show.
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