700-Year-Old Church in Germany Moves

BORNA, Germany-A Romanesque-style stone church arrived Wednesday at its new home in eastern Germany after being evicted from the spot it had occupied for at least 700 years.The Emmaus Church in Heuersdorf, near Leipzig, was loaded Oct. 25 - in one piece - onto a huge flatbed trailer for 7.5-mile trip to Martin Luther Square in Borna.After a careful journey, the 65-foot-tall, 750-ton church was inched into its new home to the sound of pealing bells from another church nearby - just in time for Reformation Day, when Lutherans traditionally honor 16th-century church reformer Martin Luther."I hope - I am certain - that it will stand for hundreds of years more at its new site," Saxony Gov. Georg Milbradt said.The Mibrag mining company spent $4.2 million to move the church after the regional legislature approved plans to dig up the town of Heuersdorf to get at some 50 million tons of lignite, or brown coal, to supply a nearby power station.Village authorities fought the plan for years but lost their appeal in Germany's Constitutional Court in 2005. Most of Heuersdorf's 320 residents already have been resettled.Mention of the Emmaus Church in historical documents dates back to 1297.
http://www.thecronline.com/news_article.php?nid=3205&ndate=01/11/2007

As in the days of Noah....