00:00This video shows a church being relocated in Sweden, not Norway.
00:07Social media users are sharing a video online that they claim shows a historical church
00:12being transported via trailer in Norway.
00:15This post on X simply says that the church is being relocated in Norway and attaches
00:20the video of the impressive feat below.
00:23It's been seen hundreds of thousands of times and shared hundreds of times too, with many
00:28users questioning whether the footage has been AI generated.
00:31But no, the video is totally authentic, if a bit sped up.
00:35The caption, however, is not because the church was actually transported to two different sites
00:40in Sweden.
00:41The 113-year-old Kiruna church was moved closer to the centre of the city of Kiruna between
00:48the 19th and 20th of August, according to the municipality's website.
00:52It's described as one of the municipality's most famous buildings and was moved to protect
00:57it from potentially being swallowed up by the expansion of a nearby underground mine.
01:02The plan to move the church and other buildings has been in the pipeline since 2004.
01:07Trailers transported the church to its new destination five kilometres away, travelling at a maximum
01:12speed of 500 metres per hour, according to reports.
01:15The church's vicar and the Bishop of the Diocese blessed the church before sending it on its way.
01:21The event was highly publicised in Sweden and beyond.
01:24It was broadcast both on TV and online.
01:27According to the municipality of Kiruna, the church was inaugurated in 1912 and is a cultural
01:33building protected by Sweden's Cultural Environment Act.
01:37It's about 40 metres wide and weighs 600 tonnes.
01:40For more fact checks, take a look at our website, euronews.com.
