The Italian Chapel, Orkney

The Italian Chapel in Orkney is one of the most moving places in Scotland, with a story that is entirely Italian. On a windswept islet, Lamb Holm, a group of Italian prisoners of war transformed two corrugated-iron military huts between 1943 and 1945 into a church decorated like a chapel back home, with frescoes, a classical façade and an altar. Today, eighty years later, the chapel is lovingly cared for by the people of Orkney and visited by thousands every year.

History

In October 1939, at the start of the Second World War, a German submarine managed to enter Scapa Flow, the great base of the British fleet, and sank the battleship Royal Oak, killing more than 800 sailors. Winston Churchill then ordered the eastern entrances to the anchorage to be sealed with a series of causeways made of rocks and concrete blocks, the Churchill Barriers. Among those who built them were around 1,300 Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa and held in two camps on the islands. In Camp 60, on the islet of Lamb Holm, the prisoners asked for a church.

In 1943 the camp commandant and the chaplain provided two Nissen huts, the typical semicircular military buildings, which were joined end to end. The work was led by Domenico Chiocchetti, a painter from Moena, in the Val di Fassa, helped by other prisoners, including the blacksmith Giuseppe Palumbi. Using salvaged materials, concrete left over from the barriers, sheet metal and wood from shipwrecks, a small church took shape in just a few months. When the prisoners were repatriated in 1945, Chiocchetti stayed on a few extra days to finish the font.

What to see

The façade

From the outside the chapel is surprising: in front of the corrugated-iron hut rises a classical façade, white and red, with an arched porch, pinnacles and a small bell tower, all moulded in concrete. At the top is the sculpted head of Christ. In front of the chapel stands a statue of St George slaying the dragon, made by Chiocchetti from barbed wire covered in concrete, a symbol of victory over evil and over the despair of captivity.

The interior

Stepping inside feels like entering an Italian church. The metal walls were lined with panels and painted by Chiocchetti with fake brickwork, fake vaulting and fake marble, so well that they fool the eye. Behind the altar is the most famous image, the Madonna and Child, Regina Pacis, based on a prayer card of the Madonna of the Olive Branch by the Genoese painter Nicolò Barabino, which Chiocchetti always carried with him. Angels and the symbols of the four evangelists are painted on either side. The wrought-iron rood screen separating the sanctuary, made by Palumbi, is a small masterpiece of craftsmanship.

Chiocchetti's return

In 1960 Domenico Chiocchetti returned to Orkney, at the invitation of the islanders, to restore the paintings, and came back again in later years. Before leaving he wrote a letter to the people of Orkney saying that the chapel was theirs, to love and preserve. His descendants still keep in touch with the islands, and there is a bond of friendship between Moena and Orkney. Mass is regularly celebrated in the chapel.

Practical information

The chapel is open most of the year, with shorter hours in winter; there is a small admission charge towards its upkeep, managed by a local committee of volunteers. As it is a place of worship, silence and respect are expected inside.

Getting there

• To Orkney: by ferry from Scrabster, Gills Bay or Aberdeen, or by air to Kirkwall from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
• To the chapel: about 15 minutes' drive south of Kirkwall, on the road across the Churchill Barriers; there is also a regular bus to St Margaret's Hope.

Nearby

• The Churchill Barriers, which you drive across, with the wrecks of the blockships sunk to close the channels still visible in the water.
• The Neolithic village of Skara Brae and the stone circles of Brodgar and Stenness.
• Kirkwall, with the red sandstone St Magnus Cathedral.

Tips

• How long: half an hour to an hour for the chapel and the small exhibition with photographs of the prisoners.
• When to go: all year round; early in the morning you avoid the cruise ship groups.
• A tip: before going in, stop to look at the grey sea and the huts around you: it helps you understand what it meant for those young men far from home to create such beauty.

Italian Chapel (Orkney) on the map

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