Construction signs are placed outside the Kiruna Church, a Sami style wooden Swedish Lutheran church, called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish, in Kiruna, Sweden, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, a day before it will be moved along a 5-kilometer (3-mile) route east to a new city center as part of the town’s relocation. (AP Photo/Malin Haarala)

Completed in 1912, the Kiruna Church has previously been named Sweden’s most beautiful building. Today, it’s part of a project which will see nearly 6,000 residents and a third of Kiruna’s buildings relocated over the next two decades.

The Kiruna Church is being moved this week along a three-mile route east 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.