Monastero di San Lazzaro degli Armeni

San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a lagoon island occupied almost entirely by a monastery. Since Venice granted refuge to Armenian monks in 1717, the Mechitarist community has maintained a library, museum and printing press there.

Why it matters

The island's name recalls its medieval history as a leper hospital; San Lazzaro is patron of lepers. Armenian monks fleeing Modone in the Peloponnese received the island from the Republic in 1717. The Mechitarist order developed it into a centre of Armenian scholarship, with a printing house and a substantial library. The monastery survived the suppression of most Venetian monasteries under Napoleon, reportedly because it was regarded as an academy of sciences.

What to notice

The monastery's library holds about 170,000 volumes, including some 4,500 manuscripts. Its museum includes Armenian paintings and artefacts, a plaster model by Antonio Canova of Napoleon's son, and the Egyptian mummy of Nemen Khet Amen, dated to about 800 BCE, with its sarcophagus. A ceiling allegory of Justice in the church is attributed to Giambattista Tiepolo. The monks cultivate roses in the garden and make vartanush, a rose-petal preserve.

Context and history

Before the Armenian community arrived, the island was used by Benedictines of Sant'Ilario, as a leper colony, for housing the poor and as a refuge for Dominicans expelled from Crete. In 1717 the Mechitarists established a monastery on the island. Their founder, Mechitar of Sebaste, is buried in its church. The community continues his work in Armenian literature and scholarship. Lord Byron studied Armenian with the Mechitarist fathers after arriving in Venice in November 1816.