Looking back...

 

This is the interior of the Italian Chapel on the island of Lamb Holm in Orkney, taken when we visited in 2013. Built by Italian prisoners of war sent to the island to build the Churchill barriers during World War 2 - a system of barricades originally put in place to close off most of the entrances to Scapa Flow to protect the home fleet, and now forming causeways joining up Orkney Mainland, Lamb Holm, Glimps Holm, and Burray.

The chapel is quite literally two nissen huts joined together, then embellished and decorated with anything the prisoners could lay their hands on. The interior decoration was largely created with paint - what looks like panelling or tiling is pretty much entirely painted on. one of the prisoners was a blacksmith - he created the ironwork from metal rods donated by construction company Balfour Beatty. Another was a cement worker - he created what now appears to be stonework also from Balfour Beatty.

It's an astonishing place - created out of almost nothing purely to allow the men who had been sent to what must have seemed to them to be an unforgiving island to have somewhere to worship - in the end it provided far more than that as it gave them a focus, something to spend their spare time working at. 

If you want to know more of the history of the Italian Chapel, that can be found HERE

Robyn