DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — and it's a story worth stopping the car for. Somewhere out here in Castro County, Texas, there stands a little concrete chapel that has no business being as beautiful as it is. And that right there is the whole story, in a nutshell — but let me give it to you properly.
During World War II, this site served as an Italian prisoner of war camp. Now think about that for a moment. Italian prisoners, a long way from home, set down in the flat expanse of the Texas Panhandle.
And among those prisoners were fine artists and craftsmen. Men with skilled hands and a particular kind of stubborn pride that doesn't care what side of a war you landed on. So they built a chapel.
They designed it themselves, these prisoners did, and they built it with their own hands. And here's the part that gets you — they crafted the concrete to resemble marble. Concrete made to look like marble.
Out here on the Texas plains. You let that settle in a minute. The chapel was completed in 1945, and from the moment it was finished, it stood as something more than a building.
It stands as a memorial to the five Italians who died while interned at the camp. Five men who never made it home. That chapel is one of the few physical reminders left that any of this ever happened here at all.
Years passed. Decades passed. Then in 1987, somebody decided that memorial deserved to keep standing, and a restoration project began.
It was completed in 1989. Concrete built to look like marble, raised by men who were prisoners, dedicated to those who didn't survive. Castro County's got a lot of sky and a lot of flat ground.
But that little chapel carries more history per square foot than most places three times its size.
What the marker says
This chapel is one of the few physical reminders of the days this site served as an Italian prisoner of war camp during World War II. The prisoners, several of them fine artists and craftsmen, designed and built the chapel, crafting the concrete building to resemble marble. Completed in 1945, the chapel stands as a memorial to the five Italians who died while interned at the camp. A restoration project, begun in 1987, was completed in 1989. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992