The Chapel of the Snows and its history – Part 1- .
Antarctica’s first church in this site, was built in 1956 by volunteers using surplus materials. This building was destroyed by fire in 1978. The only things rescued were the chapel bell, two stained glass windows, and various small religious items. In 1979 a Quonset hut was remodelled to serve as chapel, and the building was dedicated in December. By 1982 another Chapel of the Snows had been built close to the original site (again with volunteer labour using salvaged material).

Earlier chapels

The
Chapel of the Snows had not appeared in the 1956 plans for McMurdo
Station. Religious services were to be held in the mess hall. In
preparation for Antarctic research to be conducted during the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), U.S. Naval Construction Battalion personnel (Seabees) began building McMurdo Station during the 1955-1956 austral summer.
The
original plans for the station did not include a chapel; instead,
religious services were to be held in the station mess hall. However,
according to Admiral George Dufek, who commanded Deep Freeze I, “As
the construction of the buildings at McMurdo progressed a mysterious
pile of lumber, planks, nails, Quonset hut sections, and assorted
materials began to accumulate on a knoll overlooking the camp.”

The Chaplain, Father John C. Condit, and volunteers from the construction battalion gradually gathered enough materials to build what was to become the first Church ever erected in Antarctica. All of the work was done by volunteers after their daily duties were finished.
Admiral Dufek  noted: “The
men, after a hard day’s work, would drift over to the church site.
Before the main camp was finished a tidy neat church with a steeple was
to stand on a ridge overlooking the camp. Later it even had a bell,
procured from a small gasoline tanker.”
When the Chapel of the Snows was
completed, Father Condit had the world’s most southern parish. For 22
years this simple building provided a place of worship for personnel not
only at McMurdo Station but also from nearby Scott Base.

Two
excellent Antarctic Journal articles document the history of this
structure, and its replacement after the 1978 fire that destroyed it… (From the December, 1978 issue…

Chapel of the Snows destroyed).

On 22 August 1978, a
fire, believed to have begun in one of the buildings heaters, broke
out. The fire began in the rear heater room of the building about 5 a.m.
The fire crew fought the blaze successfully in the interior of the
chapel, but a sudden flare-up indicated that the fire had spread between
the interior and exterior shells along the top of the building. The
crew moved outside, but despite their efforts, fire soon engulfed the
structure, the flames covered the entire chapel.

Fearing
that the fire would spread to the adjacent structure, Building 108, or
destroy the communications cables strung between poles near the front of
the chapel, the crew brought a bulldozer to the building and pushed in
its front. With the bulldozer, they isolated sections that were still
burning and dumped snow on them to keep sparks from flying in the
breeze.
By 7:40 a.m.
the fire was under control but the chapel was destroyed. When the roof
of Building 108, adjacent to the chapel, began to smoulder, volunteers
shovelled snow onto the roof and sides of the building to protect it
from damage. A front-end loader finally knocked down the rest of the
chapel and pushed the rubble away from the cables and Building 108.
Only
a few religious objects , all damaged, along with the chapel bell were
recovered from the rubble, otherwise the building and all its contents,
including historic memorabilia from Deep Freeze One and subsequent
winter crews, were a total loss.

Thanks and credit to the following web sites and to the writers of this articles from which we did take part of this notes.

http://www.geocities.com/~kcdreher/chapel.html
http://www.zondra.org/
http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/history/chapel.html

From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Church,_Antarctica

Trinity Church is a small Russian Orthodox church on the King George Island near Russian Bellinghausen Station in Antarctica. It is the southernmost Eastern Orthodox church in the world.
The ambitious project to establish a permanent church or even a monastery on Antarctica surfaced during the 1990s. A charity named Temple for Antarctica was approved by Patriarch Alexius II and received donations from across Russia. They organized a competition for the project that was won by architects from Barnaul P.I. Anisifirov, S.G. Rybak and A.B. Schmidt.
The
church is a 15m-high wooden structure built in traditional Russian
style. It can accommodate up to 30 worshippers. The structure was built
out of Siberian Pine by Altay carpenters led by K.V. Khromov, then dismantled, shipped to Antarctica (by the ship Academician Vavilov) and assembled there by the staff of Bellinghausen Station.

The iconostasis was created by Palekh painters. The church bells were paid for by the descendants of Sergey Muravyov-Apostol.
The church was opened on May 29, 2004, the Pentecost or Trinity day according to the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. The church was blessed by Hieromonk Kallistrat (Romanenko), head priest of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, who visited Antarctica for this occasion. The permanent priest of the church is Father Georgy, who has twenty years of polar experience and now lives permanently near his church.
Among his tasks is praying for the souls of 64 Russian people who died in Antarctic expeditions and serving as the spiritual needs of the staff of Bellinghausen Station and other nearby stations.

Notes and references

World Wide Antarctic Program. A Catholic Church in Antarctica … a Challenge from WAP, 29 January 2006. Visited 15 April 2006.
2. The St. John of Rila Chapel at Bulgarian St. Kliment Ohridski Base is an Eastern
Orthodox chapel located further south and the Chapel of Snow at United States McMurdo Station is the southernmost religious building in the world. Whether a chapel is a type of church depends on the definition.
Other related links:
http://r-oc.1gb.ru/viewpage.php?cat=antarctic_continent&page=1
http://community.livejournal.com/ru_woodarch/82379.html?

In the year 2003, WAP did launch the iniative to build a Catholic Church at the Italian Base “Mario Zucchelli” located at Terra Nova Bay in Antarctica.
I’m sure we will (the Russians did it very well) accomplish our mission and we’re sure, one day our Church will be on down there as well!

Catholic Church at Chilean Base P.te Eduardo Frei
(62°12’ South,  58°57’51” West)

Chapel of  “Santa Maria Reina de la Paz” stands at Villa las Estrellas,  the most populated town of the South Shetlands , in the area where, the houses of personnel’s families are located, among the settlements of Eduardo Frei Base. Actually there are eight families with children living there; they are Regular Officers of Chilean Air Force, including the Chief of the base, Air Traffic Controllers of T.Te Rodolfo Marsh airport. These personnel and their families have  two years engagement, and live  at Villa las Estrellas.

The town, has also a school, an hospital , a Post Office and a bank.

The Chapel, is made by a large  metallic container, with electricity, heating system, voice amplifier  and inside, there are 12 pews which can locate  36 seated people.

Religious ceremonies are officiated from a  Deacon who lives  at the Base, and by priests, who are eventually  travelling around.
TNX Ricardo Verlasquez CE3HDI

When a Catholic  one … at the Italian Base MZS, Terra Nova Bay?

The idea and project to build a Church in Antarctica did start in the year 2003 after having seen that just few Bases down there have their own Church for personnel and researchers. Some of them are: US Mc Murdo Base, Chilean P.te Frei Base, Russian Bellinghausen base,  Bulgarian St. Klimend Ohridski Base. and sone Argentine’s Stations.  Italian Base Mario Zucchelli Station which guests about 120-160 people does not have a site to feed spiritual needs of its personnel.

I did start to involve authorities, politics, media (newspapers and TV) and of course the PNRA (National Antarctic Research Program, which is the authority that holds responsibility and jurisdiction of the Italian installations and research programs in Antarctica), to sensitize the pubblic opinion and the institutions about this matter.

Bureaucracy is a huge problem, particularly in Italy and of course, we are still working in trying to convince PNRA to give the authorization. Also we  did involve the Vatican through the official channels such as The Secretary of State Vatican  and CEI Italian Episcopal Conference .

After a national TV interview, we have been called by Italian Companies who have offered to build and donate the Churc:: Saint Gobain and Bertero Technology located in the city of Cuneo in the North west part of Italy have developped bio materials for building industry and both Companies did offer to join together in building and pack the Church in a container ready to be shipped to Terra Nova bay in Antarctica where the Italian base is located.
Unfortunately every thing was jusr a great purpose …permission is not been given,  but we are still fighting to make the dream  a reality

 As the readers know, WAP is trying since 2003 to get the permission to donate and build a little Church in Antarctica at the Italian base MZS.

It’s a spiritual need for the personnel at the Base, but also a tuch of glory and devotion to Lord.
The story of the Italian Base in Antartica his well recalled by Prof. Luciano Blasi (Amateur Radio operator IØJBL) one of the first Italians in Antarctica following of Italian scientific Missions since 1986.
Luciano did tell me that at Terra Nova Bay, there is a “Madonnina” inserted in the cliff, a gesture of faith and celestial respect, that it deserves of being known.
Luciano did say to me that:
…… the Alpines, when the head of the operations was the former-colonel (now retired General) Mauro Spreafico, did make a small altar under a full of rocks spur where a little statue of the Virgin (Madonnina in Italian language) have been located, so that people from the Base was usual to gather in prayer in front of Her. 

Others have told me that the Madonnina is still there and nobody has never touched it.
I knew then, from Mrs. Rita Bartolomei (that was responsible of the communication at Dome C Base, but for years has worked to BTN/MZS) that on Sunday, in the only space of rest, there have been organized groups of prayer where, who wanted, could join and do it.
I did catch up Rita Bartolomei via email in December 2004,and she had written to me that as far as the Madonnina inserted in the cliff to BTN/MZS concern, she can confirms that it is still there.
The Lieut. Col. Angelo Romito Meteorologist from the IAF, just returned from XXII the Italian Expedition to Terra Nova Bay-MZS, did send me a photograph of that full of rocks spur, where the alpines built a niche and its small altar .
They are happy that the Madonnina is
still there, and are sure that in such a cold and dispersed place, She
will pour out moments of serenity to whom, there at the Base, it has
need. In the year 2003 we have begun this sort of campaign to sensitize
the people about to our idea to construct a church over there in Antarctica.
The way is still long to go because moving bureaucracies is not an easy
way. We are sure that with the aid of the providence we will succeed in
achieving this great dream.
Help us to materialize a dream, that’s what we are looking for.