Why this Arctic church in Sweden married 20 couples in 5 hours

Sylvi Jatko and Jan-Olof Brynefall always intended to have a small, simple wedding. But when they tied the knot on Friday, entire news crews were on hand to document the occasion.

That’s because they were one of 20 couples who got hitched during a five-hour wedding whirlwind at the historic Kiruna church in northern Sweden on Friday. 

The 40 newlyweds were the last to say their vows in the iconic, A-frame building before it gets uprooted and relocated — along with the entire town. 

“It was a very special feeling,” Jatko told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

A mining town on the move

Kiruna is a small Arctic town in northern Sweden, and home to the world’s largest iron ore mine. Run by the state-owned company LKAB, it supplies about 80 per cent of European Union’s iron ore supply.

It’s also poised to play a role in Europe’s green technology future. Last year, LKAB announced that Kiruno is home to more than a million tonnes of rare earth elements, used in the manufacturing of wind turbines and electric vehicles.

But even before this discovery, the Kiruna mine had long been expanding and ramping up production. And this growth has caused land deformation that, according to the Guardian, is cracking the foundations in local buildings and threatens to swallow the town up.

As a result, an overwhelming majority of the town’s residents voted a decade ago to relocate the entire community about three kilometres away, one building at a time. 

The massive undertaking started nine years ago, and is expected to continue for years to come. 

Part of that relocation is moving the town’s church in its entirety.

“The church will be taken apart, piece by piece, then rebuilt in exactly the same way three kilometres to the east,” vicar Lars Jarlemyr told Reuters in 2015.

Designed by architect Gustaf Wickman and built between 1909 and 1912, the bright red building has long been a community hub in Kiruna and an architectural icon in Sweden.

Its design was inspired by a traditional lávvu, a tent-like temporary dwelling used by the Indigenous Sámi people.

‘It’s warming my heart’

Jatko, who is Sámi , says it’s “hard to describe” what the church means to her. She, her siblings and all of her children all had their confirmations there. 

She and Brynefall have been engaged for three years. But about two and a half weeks ago, they had a conversation that forced them to speed their plans along.

“I said to Olof that I want to marry in the church. And then he said, ‘Have you not seen the advertisements in the paper?'” Jatko said. 

The church, she soon learned, was about to close its doors to prepare for the big move. On Sunday, it held its final service, and it won’t be open again for another two and a half years in its new location.

But on Friday, to bid the adieu, it held a wedding blitz for all those who wanted to get married there before the move. Jatko and Brynefall signed up, and became the second couple of 20 to say their vows that day.

CBC reached out to church leaders for comment, but the local vicar is on a much-needed vacation after a weekend of farewell ceremonies.

Jatko, meanwhile, says she will visit the church again when it reopens in its new location, though she admits it won’t be the same. 

But she’s glad she was able to make one final memory there before it closed its doors.

“It’s warming my heart,” she said.