La nostra chiesa di Tatura

In Tatura Camp 2B, Filippo Guidobaldi worked on creating a chapel inside one of the empty barracks complete with altar and decorative panels. Giovanni Berni was remembered as the Chapel Warden who attended all religious celebrations and worked with Guidobaldi in the chapel.

Gino Guarnieri fondly remembered Guidobaldi who fashioned a beautiful chapel inside a barracks which had an altar and candelabras. Dr Terri Colpi wrote:… the well known painter Francesco Matania designed the altar-piece. (Colpi, 1991)

The chapel was a special place which Alessandro Edoni sketched and painted. He donated the sketch and painting to Marco Gazzi, who in turn donated them to the Tatura Museum.

In the drawings one can see the candelabras Gino Guarnieri remembered and the painting illustrated behind the altar is the painting of ‘Christ Walking on the Sea of Galilee’ that Nicola Cua remembered.

Might there have been a metaphorical connection to ‘Christ Walking on the Sea of Galilee and the ‘Dunera’ Italians who had been saved after the sinking of the ‘Arandora Star’. In those nine or so desperate hours waiting for rescue, the men would have said their prayers and waited…

Might there have been a metaphorical connection to ‘Christ Walking on the Sea of Galilee and the ‘Dunera’ Italians who had been saved after the sinking of the ‘Arandora Star’. In those nine or so desperate hours waiting for rescue, the men would have said their prayers and waited…

Alessandro Edoni’s black and white sketch of the chapel at Tatura Camp 2B

(photo courtesy of Renato Edoni)