MUNICH: Residents of the small Bavarian town of Mitterfirmiansreut have built a church out of ice and snow on the same spot where another ice church was constructed 100 years ago by villagers looking for a place to worship.

The temporary ice church, dubbed ''God's Igloo'' by one German newspaper, was blessed by a Catholic priest this week, Spiegel International Online reports.

Frozen in time … visitors admire the snow church after its inauguration in Mitterfirmiansreut on Wednesday. An ice church had been built there 100 years ago. Credit:AFP

Residents had hoped to open the $US200,000 church for Christmas, but were hampered by unseasonably warm weather and a lack of snow.

The first ice church was built by mountain villagers who had to travel 90 minutes to a neighbouring town to celebrate Mass. When the town officials rejected their pleas for their own church, they built one out of snow and ice.