The Italian Chapel: When Faith Brings People Together
Built by Italian prisoners of war on an uninhabited island in Scotland during WWII, this chapel has surprising origins: The German raid on Scapa Flow!
On 14 October 1939, U-boat U-47, commanded by Günther Prien, penetrated the main Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow and sank the British battleship HMS Royal Oak. The legendary attack is considered one of the most audacious raids in submarine history. It also cost the British 835 dead.
The Construction of Churchill Barriers and Arrival of Italian POWs
The decision was made to block four of the entrances into Scapa Flow. Work began in May 1940 and the “Churchill Barriers” were finally completed in September 1944. The work was completed using the labour of 1,200 Italian prisoners of war.
The first 550 prisoners arrived at Lamb Holm island on the Orkney archipelago in 1942. Lamb Holm was previously uninhabited and a POW camp was established there by the British authorities: Camp 60.
The Italian POWs residing at Camp 60 were representative of the Italian society of the time: There were men of all backgrounds and various skills. There was a priest (Fr Giacobazzi), an artist (Domenico Chiocchetti), a blacksmith (Giuseppe Palumbi) and a cement worker (Domenico Buttapasta).
The Formation of the Chapel
When the camp’s priest requested that two Nissen huts be joined to transform them into a chapel, the British authorities accepted. They likewise agreed to divert a small amount of construction material to the island and allow the Italians to embellish their chapel. The Italians also used their imaginations to recycle whatever they could get their hands on to finish their project: The light holders were made out of corned beef tins and the baptismal font was made from the inside of a car exhaust covered in a layer of concrete.
Beloved by locals and tourists alike, a local Chapel Preservation Committee was set up as early as 1958. The Chapel is now a Grade A listed building and an Italian artist that previously worked in the Sistine Chapel in Rome was involved in the Italian Chapel’s own refurbishment in the 1990s!
-RBM
