Video shows church being relocated in Sweden, not Norway

Social media users are sharing a video online that they claim shows a historic church being transported via trailer in Norway.

One particularly viral post on X simply says that the church is being relocated in Norway, and attaches the video of the impressive feat below.

It's been seen hundreds of thousands of times and shared hundreds of times too, with many users questioning whether the footage has been AI-generated, and some others making xenophobic comments that the church was being moved to make way for mosques.

However, the video is totally authentic, if a bit sped up. The caption, however, is not, because the church was actually transported to two different sites in Sweden, not Norway.

The 113-year-old Kiruna Church was moved closer to the centre of the city of Kiruna between 19 and 20 August, according to the municipality's website.

It's described as one of the municipality's most famous buildings and was moved to protect it from potentially being swallowed up by the expansion of a nearby underground mine.

The plan to move the church and other buildings has been in the pipeline since 2004.

Trailers transported the church to its new destination 5km away, travelling at a maximum speed of 500 metres per hour, according to reports.

The church's vicar, Lena Tjärnberg, and Åsa Nyström, Bishop of the Diocese of Luleå, blessed the church before sending it on its way.

The event was highly publicised in Sweden and beyond — it was broadcast both on TV and online.

According to the municipality of Kiruna, the church was inaugurated in 1912 and is a cultural building protected by Sweden’s Cultural Environment Act.

It is about 40 metres wide and weighs 600 tonnes, and was voted "The best building of all time built before 1950" and the Swedish people's favourite building in 2001, the municipality said.