World News for Students of English

26-08-2025 07:00

After eight years of preparation and a cost of over 44 million euros, the famous Kiruna Kyrka church in northern Sweden has begun its unusual journey.

The red wooden church, built in 1912 and weighing 672 tonnes, is being slowly rolled 5km to a new location at a speed of half a kilometre per hour.

The move is part of a large, decades-long relocation of the whole Arctic town of Kiruna, which is threatened by the expansion of Europe’s biggest underground iron ore mine. Thousands of people, including Sweden’s king, are expected to watch as the church makes its way through specially widened streets. The event is broadcast live, turning it into a kind of national spectacle. The church is valued not only for its age but also for its design, which resembles a traditional Sámi hut.

However, the project has received criticism. Members of the Sámi community argue that the mining company is destroying land and culture, making reindeer herding and traditional life increasingly difficult.

Difficult words: relocation (moving something to a new place), spectacle (a public event that many people watch), resemble (to look like).

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