Town is about to be swallowed by a mine

The choice for this city was clear: move lock, stock, and barrel or disappear from the face of the earth.

That was the dilemma facing Kiruna, an arctic Swedish city of 24,000. The remaining deposits of a giant iron ore mine, Kiruna's biggest employer, lie, you guessed it, right under the city.

Over the next few years, much of Kiruna will relocate two miles away. Krister Lindstedt of White architects, the group that will help move the town, explained "It's a dystopian choice." Homes, schools, stores, even the church considered Sweden's most beautiful.

Residents will have the choice of a new home, or having their current ones reconstructed brick by brick. "We are symbiotic: The town is here because of the mine," says deputy mayor Niklas Siren to The Guardian. "Otherwise, no devil would have built a city here."

The Kiruna of today will eventually be swallowed up, but the reborn Kiruna will live on.

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