The amazing Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, built from huts by prisoners on Orkney Islands of Scotland

The Italian Chapel on the Island of Lamb Holm, part of the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The chapel consists of two Nissen huts, transformed into a beautiful Catholic chapel by Domenico Chiocchetti and his colleagues, Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa and transported to the Island of Lamb Holm in Orkney to build the 'Churchill Barriers' at Scapa Flow.

A shortage of manpower to construct the barriers coincided with the capture of thousands of Italian soldiers, so 550 captured soldiers were transported to Camp 60 on Lamb Holm and a similar number to Camp 34 on Burray.

Following a request from the camp priest, Fr Giacobazzi, it was agreed that two Nissen huts would be joined together to provide a chapel. Among the Italians in Camp 60 was an artist, Domenico Chiocchetti, and he was given the task of transforming the two Nissen huts into a chapel. He was assisted by other tradesmen - in particular Giuseppe Palumbi, a blacksmith, and Domenico Buttapasta, a cement worker, who carried a small prayer card with the image of the Madonna and Child by Nicolo Barabino, which he used for the painting above the altar in the Chapel. There are no tiles or special materials used in the construction, the Italian prisoners created the effects in paint and plaster, using food tins and for the lights and some decorations.

Now, decades after the completion of the Chapel, it is one of Orkney's most loved attractions, with over 100,000 visitors every year.