Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm
Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm
The Italian Chapel stands on Lamb Holm in Orkney, a Category A listed Catholic chapel raised by Italian prisoners of war while they built the Churchill Barriers east of Scapa Flow.
- Location
- Lamb Holm, Orkney Islands
- Country
- Scotland
- County
- Orkney Islands
- City / town
- Lamb Holm
- Address
- Lamb Holm, Orkney Islands, KW17 2SF
- Postcode
- KW17 2SF
- Built
- 1943–44
- Architect
- Domenico Chiocchetti
- Denomination
- Catholic Church
- Diocese
- Aberdeen
- Parish
- Our Lady and St Joseph, Orkney
- Grade
- Category A
- Style
- Ornamental Nissen-hut chapel
- Materials
- Corrugated iron, concrete, salvaged timber
- Grid reference
- HY 488 006
- Opening hours
- Open daily 10am to 4pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Italian prisoners captured in North Africa were housed at Camp 60 on the then uninhabited island. In 1943 two Nissen huts were given over to a chapel, directed by the artist Domenico Chiocchetti with the support of Padre Gioachino Giacobazzi and the camp commandant. Comrades skilled in cement, metalwork and electrics lined the huts, built a pedimented façade and painted the interior in imitation brick and carved stone. Timber for the tabernacle came from a wrecked ship; gold sanctuary curtains were bought from Exeter with the prisoners’ welfare fund.
The chapel was not fully finished until after the war. Restorations in the 1960s and 1990s conserved Chiocchetti’s sanctuary painting and the statue of St George in the former camp square. It remains the principal relic of Camp 60 and is in the Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady and St Joseph, Diocese of Aberdeen. Mass is offered on summer Sundays.