Italian Chapel

Italian Chapel

The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm in Orkney, Scotland, was built by Italian prisoners of war captured in Africa during World War II. The prisoners were stationed on the island between 1942 and 1945 to help in construction of the Churchill Barriers at Scapa Flow. [Colpi, Terri - Italians Forward: a Visual History of the Italian Community in Great Britain - Mainstream, 1991 ISBN 1851583491]

The chapel was constructed from two Nissen huts joined end-to-end. The corrugated interior was then covered with plasterboard and the altar and altar rail were constructed from concrete left over from work on the barriers.

Most of the interior decoration was done by Domenico Chiocchetti, a POW from Moena, who remained on the island to finish the chapel even when his fellow prisoners were released shortly before the end of the war. [http://www.callnetuk.com/home/hibs/the1.htm]

In 1958 the Chapel Preservation Committee was set up by a group of Orcadians and in 1960 Chiocchetti returned to the chapel to assist in the restoration. He returned again in 1964 but was too ill to travel when some of the other prisoners returned in 1992 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their arrival on the island. He died in 1999.

Today the chapel remains a popular tourist attraction, receiving over 100,000 visitors every year. It has become one of the most well-known and moving symbols of reconciliation in the British Isles.

References

External links

* [http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/italianchapel/ Undiscovered Scotland: The Italian Chapel]
* [http://www.orcadian.co.uk/features/articles/prisoners.htm "Orcadian": The history of the Italian Chapel]


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