It is the 80th anniversary of the completion of Orkney’s Italian Chapel. As someone with Italian heritage, these anniversaries often lend an opportunity for reflection. I was fortunate enough to visit Orkney’s Italian Chapel a few years ago. My mother’s family were Italian so I had known about this little chapel since I was a small child. I was also well aware of WW2 at this point too, as my ‘Nonno’, (maternal Italian grandfather), was an Italian civilian who was arrested and interned as an ‘enemy alien’ in 1940.
A personal visit
This family background made my visit to Orkney and the chapel extra special for me. Anyone who has visited Orkney knows it is a beautiful, magical and wondrous place. The infamous wind and its all-encompassing, relentless, eerie sound adds to the contemplative mood which accompanied my visit to the chapel. This was given added poignancy as I was the only one there at the time of my visit.
Make do and mend
The ingenuity of the Italian Chapel is in its construction. The ‘scratch built’ make do and mend vision of the prisoners was realised by utilising materials which were found near at hand. Nissen huts formed the main structure which was fronted by a concrete chapel facade while the baptismal font was made from the interior of a concrete-covered car exhaust. Conceived in 1943, the chapel was completed in 1945 at the end of the war.
A symbol of humanity
During my visit, I thought of those Italians who were focused on building and creating a place of worship. This symbol of humanity helped remind them that they were, and continued to be, human beings. Their focus and determination rewarded them with this quite unique chapel, and 80 years on, it continues to be visited and discussed today. It is now one of Orkney’s main tourist landmarks attracting around 100,000 visitors a year.
‘Moving on’
Many victims of war, like those in Orkney, never talked about their wartime experiences, wanting instead to focus on life, the future and their families. We may not quite understand that in today’s ‘overshare’ culture, and that’s OK. Important issues are legitimate to share. But perhaps we should remember and respect that in the past, right or wrong, that’s how many people felt and thought.
Italian reflections
I, myself, a dual citizen, now live in Italy. When I discuss the war with, albeit older Italians, they obviously know about Italian prisoners of war. Recent restoration work of the chapel’s frescoes by Italian art restorer Antonella Papa and local volunteers has raised its media profile in Italy where it is increasingly viewed with pride.
As I have learnt over the many years living in Italy and with my own Italian family, Italians are, above all else, resilient and philosophical about the war and politics in general.
Reflecting on his cycling holiday in Orkney a few years ago, Italian Nicola Perna summed up what many of us feel when he wrote, “A little church in the middle of nowhere…This is our Italian Chapel. These are our Orkneys that, to us who were looking for the extreme beauty of nature, have given us a wonderful example of humanity”.
More in society.
