The chapel, which measures just nine feet long by five feet wide, can only accommodate a few people at time and its walls are made up of thousands of fragments of china, seashells and pebbles.
Brother Deodat, an exiled French monk, started building the Little Chapel in December 1913 to emulate the sacred grotto at Lourdes. Three versions of the chapel have been built altogether; the first demolished by Deodat himself following criticism (temper, temper) and the second destroyed when the Bishop of Portsmouth could not pass through the doorway – that must have been fairly embarrassing. The third version, which was officially finished in July 1914, is the one we see today.
The chapel is one of the most highly visited places on the island and has survived 100 years with no damage, even during the WWII German occupation. The chapel is free to visit – so if you’d like to see the thrice-built chapel, click here for more info.
