Scanned image of interior -view of altar table at East end
SC 645564
Description Scanned image of interior -view of altar table at East end
Date 23/8/1997
Catalogue Number SC 645564
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of D 21667 CN
Scope and Content Altar, World War II Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm, Orkney Islands The construction of the Churchill Barriers across the four eastern channels of Scapa Flow was begun in 1940 and continued for much of the remainder of World War II. As work progressed, they came to be recognised less as military barriers and more as civilian causeways, which is what they eventually became in 1945. Because of other wartime demands, workers for the project were in short supply, and a relaxed interpretation of the Geneva Convention allowed the labour force to be augmented substantially by Italian prisoners-of-war from early 1942 onwards. A chapel at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm remains a picturesque memorial to the Italian contribution and to its principal creator, Domenico Chiocchetti. It was one of two chapels built in Orkney by Italian prisoners-of-war, another one having once stood at Camp 34 on Burray. This is a detail of the altar at the east end of the Italian Chapel. The altar table is of moulded concrete, the candelabra were wrought in iron and brass by two of the prisoners, and the wood casing of the tabernacle is from a wrecked ship. The altar is flanked by windows of painted glass representing St Francis of Assisi and St Catherine of Siena, and the altarpiece itself was painted by Chiocchetti. It is based on a famous picture of Madonna of the Olives by Nicola Barabina (1832-91), a copy of which Chioccheti carried with him throughout the war. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap
Attribution: © RCAHMS
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