The Town That Moved 2 Miles
Kiruna,Sweden'snorthernmosttown,isbeingrelocatedbuildingbybuildingbecausetheironminebeneathitiscausingthegroundtocollapse.They'removingthechurch,thetownsquare,3,000homes—everything.It'sstillhappening.
Kiruna is a small city of about 23,000 people in Swedish Lapland, 145 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. It exists for one reason: iron ore. The Kiruna mine, operated by the state-owned company LKAB, is the largest underground iron ore mine in the world. It has been in continuous operation since 1898 and produces millions of tonnes of ore per year.
There's a problem. As the mine has dug deeper — it now extends more than a kilometre below the surface — the ground above has begun to deform. Cracks have appeared in buildings. Roads have buckled. The land is slowly collapsing into the void left by decades of extraction.
So they're moving the entire town.
In 2004, LKAB announced that the ongoing mining operations would eventually undermine central Kiruna. The company, the municipality, and the Swedish government agreed on a plan that sounds impossible: relocate the town centre approximately three kilometres to the east, onto stable ground.
The relocation involves moving or demolishing roughly 3,000 homes, the city hall, the town square, the famous Kiruna Church, schools, businesses, and infrastructure. The total cost is estimated in the billions of dollars, funded primarily by LKAB.
This isn't a metaphor. They are physically picking up buildings and moving them. In 2023, the Kiruna Church — a century-old wooden structure voted Sweden's most beautiful pre-1950 building — was lifted onto a flatbed transport system and moved 1.7 kilometres to its new location. The entire operation was broadcast live.
The relocation has been happening in phases since the mid-2010s and is expected to continue into the 2030s and beyond. Residents have been moved into newly constructed housing in the new town centre. Some have embraced the change as an opportunity for a fresh start. Others have mourned the loss of the town they knew.
Kiruna is being unmade and remade, block by block, because the wealth that created it is also the thing destroying it. The mine giveth and the mine taketh away.
Kiruna's move — explained
A clear visual explainer on why and how an entire Arctic town is being relocated three kilometres east — one building at a time.
The Kiruna Church move
In 2023, Sweden's most beloved wooden church was lifted onto a transport system and moved 1.7 km. The footage is surreal — an entire building gliding across the Arctic landscape.
Kiruna on Wikipedia
The full context — Kiruna's history, the mine that created it, and the urban transformation that will redefine it over the coming decades.
What you now know
- Kiruna, Sweden — a town of 23,000 people north of the Arctic Circle — is being physically relocated three kilometres east because the iron mine beneath it is causing the ground to collapse
- The relocation includes 3,000 homes, the town church, the town square, schools, and businesses — a multi-billion-dollar operation funded primarily by the mining company LKAB
- The move has been underway since the mid-2010s and will continue into the 2030s, making it one of the largest urban relocations in modern history