Following great demand from the Italian Community in Scotland and Northern Ireland to visit the Italian Chapel in Orkney, the COCAIS (Comitato di Co-ordinamento della Associazioni Italiane in Scozia) has organized a 3 day tour to the Okneys from Saturday 18 May to Monday 20 May 2013.
Info: Giuseppe Riato – 119 Tantallon Road – Shawlands – Glasgow G41 3EW – Tel. 0141 632 1007 Mob 077 4847 5733 – Giuseppe.Riato@ic24.net Adriano De Marco – 7 Roddinghead Road – Glasgow G46 6TW – Tel 0141 639 6263 – Mob 078 6041 5943 – ademarco1950@gmail.com
The Italian Chapel is a highly ornate Catholic chapel on Lamb Holm in Orkney. It was built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II, who were held on the previously uninhabited island. It is now a popular tourist attraction, and a category A listed building.
550 Italian Prisoners of War captured in North Africa during World War II, were brought to Orkney in 1942. 200 were based at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm.In 1943, Major T P Buckland, Camp 60’s new commandant, and Father Giacobazzi, the Camp’s priest, agreed that a place of worship was required.
The chapel was constructed from limited materials by the prisoners. Two Nissen huts were 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. He painted the sanctuary end of the chapel and fellow-prisoners decorated the entire interior. They created a front facade out of concrete, concealing the shape of the hut and making the building look like a church.
Chiocchetti remained on the island to finish the chapel, even when his fellow prisoners were released shortly before the end of the war