Named the Church of Madonna delle Gracie (Our Lady of Mercy), the tiny church in Epworth, Pietermaritzburg, built by Italian prisoners of war can accommodate about 50 worshippers. This marvel of engineering using limited materials fell into a state of disrepair before being restored. The first group of 5 000 Italian combatants captured by South African forces in East and North Africa arrived in the camp in 1941 and were at first housed in tents before being moved into wooden dormitories. Early in 1942 the camp chaplain, Padre Giacomo Conte, suggested that artisans among the prisoners should build a church in the camp grounds to relieve their boredom. The shale blocks had to be quarried 2km away, then hauled to the building site by human muscle-power using makeshift carts. The Italians began work on the church on February 2, 1942, after Sergeant Ottaviano Ariello, an architect, drew the plans and acted as building supervisor. It is only 17.3m long and 7.5m wide with a clock tower 9.5m high. The cornice over the main entrance bears the inscription: MATRI DIVINAE GRATIAE CAPTIVI ITALICI AD MCMXLIV. The ceremony of inauguration, consecration and a pontifical mass was performed on Sunday, March 19, 1944, by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Van Gijlswijk, when he officially named the building the Church of Madonna delle Grazie (Our Lady of Mercy). For the remaining months of the war, services were held regularly, but when the war ended the camp was disbanded, the prisoners were repatriated and the church stood alone by the roadside, forgotten and neglected. The building and a sculpted stone lion in the churchyard could be seen from the N3 highway and, in the 1950s and 1960s, it was often occupied by tramps and vagrants who vandalised the interior. Father Anton Dovigo was on holiday in South Africa from Italy in 1962 when he visited the diminutive church and was so shocked at its awful condition that he launched a fund for its restoration. Former prisoners in Italy and South Africa contributed to the fund and local builders donated their time and expertise for its restoration. A new bell was cast in Italy and sent free of charge to Durban. When it arrived in Epworth, former prisoner Salvatore Fardella, who helped build the church, installed the bell in the tower. One of the memorials in the cemetery of the Italian POW Church in Pietermaritzburg commemorates Italians who died when a German U-boat mistakenly sank a British troop carrier, the SS Nova Scotia, on November 28, 1942. The ship sailed from Massawa in Italian East Africa with 765 Italian prisoners-of-war, 134 British and South African soldiers and 110 crew. It was heading for Durban when it was torpedoed 40km off the Zululand coast and blew up within 10 minutes. Realising the submarine captain’s error, the German U-boat command notified the Portuguese authorities in Mozambique and a rescue ship was sent from Lourenco Marques (Maputo). The Alfonso du Albuquerque reached the scene next day, rescued 192 survivors and took them to Mozambique. An estimated 645 Italians died in the sinking, with many bodies washed onto Natal’s beaches. The remains of 120 victims were laid to rest in the Italian military cemetery in Hillary, Durban, before being re-interred in Pietermaritzburg in 2008. Ref: Sunday Tribune 23 Oct 2016 - Richard Rhys Jones.
