A small temple of the 13th century, like the entire village, where it stood for 750 years, found itself in the zone of the expansion of a brown coal pit. Residents tried to stop the attack on their village by companies involved in the development of this deposit, but the court sided with the industrialists.
The church weighs 660 tons and measures 14.5 m in height, 8.9 m in width and 19.6 m in length. Since it is relatively modest in size, it was decided to take it out of the "disaster zone" (the second church in the village, large in size, is doomed to perish).
Pastor Thomas Krieger, who serves at Emmaus Church, did not immediately find a suitable new site for the monument. At one time he was even ready to put it by the road, turning it into a chapel for passers-by. There are five more Protestant churches in his parish, and he had already lost one more due to the expansion of coal mining zones, so he was not ready to give up the second.
The new location for the church will be the Borny market square, not far from the town's own church.
The transportation of the building cost 3 million euros. A lot of money was spent on preparing the church for the move. The work began immediately after Easter 2007. A reinforced concrete platform was erected under the building, and all cracks in its walls were also concreted. Outside, the stone building was reinforced with four steel "corsets". After that, she was raised 1.6 m and placed on a huge platform with many wheels. Then, at a speed of 5 km per hour, the church was taken to Bornu. The journey took eight days.
A considerable part of the funds was also spent on preparing the path for the construction: roads were expanded, the direction of the flow of small rivers was changed, and electrical wires were removed.
The first service at the new location will not take place until Easter 2008.
