Another wet and windy day. We struggled to find somewhere to go where we wouldn’t get too wet. So we went to the Italian Chapel. After the sinking of the Royal Oak (torpedoed while at anchor in Scapa Flow on 14th Oct 1939) Churchill instructed that 4 barriers were to be constructed between small inlets between 4 islands – the U boat had come in to Scapa Flow this way (more about barriers tomorrow). So in 1940 Italian prisoners of war were brought from the Western Desert to Orkney to do so. They refused to work as it was called a war project so it was renamed a civilian project and they set to. Their camp was on Lamb Holm, the first island south of the Mainland and they were based there for most of the war. They converted two nissan huts into a chapel using waste and obsolete materials.
The interior was painted by Domenico Chiocchetti as a tromp l’oeil. The Chiocchetti family has been “adopted” by Orkney and have been over to Orkney. He has carried out repairs his paintwork. He died about 10 years ago.
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